THE 



GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE 



OF THE STATE OF 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



BY 

FKANCIS NEWTON THORPE, 

PROFESSOR OF CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY 
OF PENNSYLVANIA. 







3d 



REVISED EDITION/, COPYRIGHT, 1896. 



PHILADELPHIA : 

Eldredge & Brother, 

No. 17 North Seventh Street. 

1896. 






4 










H 






o 

O 




Special legislation enacted by the General Assembly of 
this State has resulted in variations in the organization 
and administration of local government. These varia- 
tions will be found in the methods of assessing and 
collecting taxes, in the number and duties of the clerks 
of the courts, in the method of road-supervision, in the 
matter of salaries and fees of officials and in various 
other matters of local government. It has not been 
deemed necessary nor even desirable to attempt to explain 
and to reconcile these minor differences ; they can be best 
examined and considered in the localities in which they 
occur. Under the present Constitution of the State, spe- 
cial legislation — that is, legislation affecting only certain 
interests or localities — is forbidden. 

The advantage of referring directly to the Constitution 
for any information which is therein expressly stated, and 
thus to study the Constitution itself, rather than to study 
about it, cannot be too strongly urged. There is a reality 
and a freshness in information so gained that is attainable 
in no other way. 

The author desires to express his obligations to teachers 
throughout the State for the generous welcome accorded 
to the original edition of this work and for kind sug- 
gestions which have enabled him materially to improve 
and to strengthen the book. 

FKANCIS NEWTON THOEPE. 

University of Pennsylvania, ) 
Philadelphia, Pa. ) 




CHAPTER. PAGE 

I. The Civil Government of Pennsylvania in History . 9 
II. The Civil Government of Pennsylvania at the 

Present Time 23 

III. How the People Choose their Officers 67 

IV. To the People we come Sooner or Later 74 

V. Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 76 

VI. Appendix 124 



ILLUSTEATIONS. 

The State Flag • Frontispiece. 

Coat of Arms of the State 2 

Portrait of William Penn 9 

The Old State House in Philadelphia, in which the Con- 
stitutional Convention met 17 

The Capitol at Harrisburg 22 

The Great Seal of the State 23 




INTRODUCTION. 



As applied to an American Commonwealth the word 
State signifies a political community of free citizens, occu- 
pying a territory of defined boundaries, organized under 
a government sanctioned and limited by a written Con- 
stitution, and established by the consent of the people. 
Each State or Commonwealth maintains a republican 
form of government, which is guaranteed by the United 
States. 

A State or Commonwealth is a public corporation, and. 
has many rights also possessed by a free person. It can 
buy and sell property and hold it in possession. It can 
make contracts or agreements and compel those who form 
the contract to perform their part. Yet because it is the 
State and possesses many powers which a human being 
cannot possess or exercise, the State cannot be sued as 
easily as an individual or a private corporation. The 
State as a public corporation is next in rank to the 
United States. Public corporations of lesser rank are 
counties, cities, and boroughs. There are cases in which 
the United States, a State, a county, a city, or a borough 
may be sued. 

The State differs from the government of the State. 
The body of men to whom the business of the State is 
committed by the electors are public servants. They pos- 
sess no authority not delegated to them by the State Con- 
stitution and the laws made in accordance with it. The 
laws of the State are made by its legislature and are of 
general application in the State unless otherwise specified. 

5 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

Local government consists chiefly in the administration 
of these laws. Cities and boroughs, through the agency 
of councils, enact ordinances in force only in their respec- 
tive cities and boroughs. All such ordinances must be 
consistent with the Constitution and the laws of the State. 

The State Constitution is therefore the supreme law of 
the State, — supreme unless it conflicts with the supreme 
law of the United States, which is the national Constitu- 
tion and the treaties and laws made by its authority. 

A citizen of Pennsylvania is therefore governed by 
several sets of laws. If he resides in a township, a bor- 
ough or a city, he is governed by local laws or ordinances, 
also by the laws of the State ; the Constitution of the State ; 
the laws of Congress ; the treaties made by Congress : and 
by the Constitution of the United States. 

He is only indirectly affected by the laws, the treaties, 
.and the Constitution of the United States. By far the 
greater part of his interests are directly affected by local 
laws or ordinances and by State laws. 1 

Pennsylvania is independent of every other Common- 
wealth, but it is an integral part of the United States. It 
is one of the original thirteen States, and bears as a State 
a relation to all the other States which may be compared 
to the relation which one organ of the human body bears 

1 " An American may, through a long life, never be reminded of the 
Federal Government, except when he votes at presidential elections, 
lodges a complaint against the post-office, and opens his trunk for a cus- 
tom-house officer on the pier at New York when he returns from a tour 
in Europe. His direct taxes are paid to officials under State laws. The 
State, or a local authority constituted by the State statutes, registers his 
birth, appoints his guardian, pays for his schooling, gives him a share 
in the estate of his father deceased, marries him, divorces him, enter- 
tains civil action against him, declares him a bankrupt, hangs him for 
murder. The police that guard his house, the local boards which look 
after the poor, control highways, impose water rates, manage schools — 
all these derive their legal powers from the State alone." — Bryce's 
American Commonwealth. 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

to all the other organs. The inhabitant of Pennsylvania 
may be a citizen or an alien. If a citizen, he may be an 
elector if he complies with the requirements of the State 
Constitution. If a citizen of Pennsylvania, he is also a 
citizen of the United States. 

Because his interests are identified with those of Penn- 
sylvania, he is directly concerned in the government of 
the State. If an elector, he exercises a power in deter- 
mining what kind of a government shall exist in the State 
and who shall administer it. He votes directly for State, 
county, township, city, or borough officers. If any officers 
are appointed, he votes for the officer who appoints them. 
If there is inefficient or bad government in the State or in 
any of its civil divisions, the citizens may correct abuses 
by their votes. The people are chiefly responsible for the 
entire conduct of the public business because the public 
business is entrusted to their servants. 

The State of Pennsylvania is but little larger than the 
province ceded to William Penn; indeed, it is larger only 
by the " Triangle " on Lake Erie. It is correct, however, 
to speak of the growth of the Commonwealth, though by 
the term we do not imply an acquisition of territory. Its 
growth consists in the increase of the number of its peo- 
ple and of their resources and power. It is the second 
State in the Union in point of population, which now 
numbers about six millions. From 1880 to 1890 it gained 
more people than any other Commonwealth. It is usu- 
ally spoken of as a mining and manufacturing State, yet 
by the census of 1890, two of its counties, Lancaster and 
Chester, were among the five most productive counties of 
the Union agriculturally, and Lancaster was second of 
the five. 

A people so numerous, — being now nearly twice as 
many as lived in the United States when Washington 
became President ; so actively engaged in all the import- 
ant modern industries, are necessarily compelled to give 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

great attention to their State government, and to the 
government of their counties, their townships, their 
boroughs, and their cities. If they neglect these civil 
interests, they endanger their own peace and prosperity. 
From an early day civil government existed in that 
part of Pennsylvania extending along the Delaware, in 
the vicinity of Philadelphia. As early as 1638 a Swedish 
colony settled on the west side of the Delaware Bay and 
recognized the Schuylkill river as a northern boundary. 
But New r Sweden, as the region occupied was called, was 
of short duration. The Dutch of New Amsterdam 
claimed the region occupied by the Swedes, and in Sep- 
tember, 1655, they conquered New Sweden. During the 
seventeen years of its existence, the Swedes by their in- 
dustry had made it a source of profit to the home country. 
The Dutch, in turn, submitted to the English, when New 
Amsterdam became New York, in 1664. The Swedish 
and the later Dutch occupation of a small portion of the 
country, now know as Pennsylvania, cannot be said to 
have affected its civil history. Though the Swedes had 
their own local government, Penn did not change his form 
of government on their account. He found the Swedes in 
his province, and he included them as a part of its people 
" w 7 ho," he said, " should have laws of their own making." 
Civil government in Pennsylvania begins with William 
Penn's charter. 




William Penn. 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



o>^o 



CHAPTER I. 

THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA IN 
HISTORY. 

1. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was founded 
by William Penn, under a charter granted him by King 
Charles II., March 4, 1681. Penn was born in 1644, in 
London, and, while a student at Oxford University, joined 
the Society of Friends. The Friends w r ere among the Eng- 
lish emigrants to America during the last half of the sev- 
enteenth century. 

9 



10 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

2. The Friends were not welcome in New England, on 
account of their religious opinions. They did not like 
New York because of "the worldly character of its in- 
habitants." They disapproved of slavery, hence they did 
not like Virginia and the Carolinas. Therefore they came 
to New Jersey, and in the years 1675 to 1680 they founded 
Burlington and some of the adjoining towns. 

3. New Jersey was settled under the fostering care of 
trustees some of whom were Friends, and among whom 
was William Penn. His relations with friendly settle- 
ments in New Jersey led him to think of founding a 
province based on friendly and just principles. 

4. Penn's influence with King Charles II. was sufficient 
to induce that careless monarch to give to Penn the region 
of country now known as Pennsylvania. 1 King Charles 
gave away parts of America to his favorites with a lavish 
hand, and, as he was not particular about boundaries, 
his grants were the cause of many disputes long after his 
death, when the States attempted to fix their boundaries. 
The deed from King Charles to William Penn specifies 

"A tract of land in America lying north of 
Maryland, on the east bounded by the Delaware 
River, on the west limited as Maryland is, and 
northward to extend as far as plantable." 

5. The grant of this land to Penn was not one of mere 
favoritism ; the English Crown was indebted to the Penn 
family to the amount of £16,000— about $80,000 at the 
present time — which Penn's father, Sir William Penn, a 
distinguished British admiral, had years before advanced 
to the British Government. The admiral, moreover, had 
performed great services meriting recognition. 

6. Penn's request to King Charles for a grant of land in 
America as full payment of the debt enabled the king to 

1 The original area was increased in 1786 by the purchase of the 
"Triangle," Erie county, from the government of the United States. 



THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 11 

pay it very easily. By English law, the land asked for 
belonged to the Crown by right of Cabot's discoveries 
nearly two hundred years before. 

7. On the 4th of March, 1681, the king signed a charter 
by which " Pennsylvania " was given to William Penn 
and his heirs for ever on the condition that the head of 
the Penn family should pay tribute for it : 

" Yeelding and paying therefore to vs, our heires 
and Succeffors, two beaver Skins to bee delivered 
att our faid Caftle of Windfor, on the firft day of 
Januarie, in every yeare; and alfo the fifth parte of 
all Gold and Silver Oare, which fhall from time to 
time happen to be found within the Limitts afore- 
faid, cleare of all Charges." 1 

8. Penn had already thought out a " Frame of Govern- 
ment." One of his friends and neighbors was the cele- 
brated Algernon Sidney, a friend of mankind and a de- 
fender of the ideas of free government. Sidney influenced 
and aided Penn in making his plan of government so 
broad and liberal in character that its essential features 
remain to this day. Because of his liberal ideas Sidney 
was soon after put to death on the charge of treason ; he 
was convicted because he had written out his thoughts on 
free government. The manuscript was declared to be his, 
and he was condemned and executed, although the manu- 
script had never been published. 

9. Penn brought Sidney's liberal ideas to America. He 
landed at Upland, now called Chester, October 27, 1682, 
and at once issued orders for a general election to occur 
November 20. On December 4, he held his first assembly. 
Penn never forgot his friend Sidney. He spoke as Sidney 
would have spoken when, in writing to the people of 
Pennsylvania, he told them that they should have law- 

1 The original charter may still be seen at Harrisburg, and the 
State has published a full-sized fac-simile of it. 



12 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

makers of their own choosing and laws of their own mak- 
ing. He said, " I will put the power with the people " — a 
great idea in government— an idea made immortal by 
Abraham Lincoln in his speech at Gettysburg describing 
government as " government of the people, by the people 
and for the people." 

10. This first Pennsylvania Assembly at Chester in 1682 
enacted " The Great Law or Body of Laws of the Province 
of Pennsylvania," consisting of sixty-six laws, which, w r ith 
slight modification in two hundred years, are the laws of 
the Commonwealth to this day. By his charter Penn was 
made lord proprietor of his province. He had almost 
kingly power ; but, faithful to his ideas of government, he 
provided for a House of Assembly, for courts of law, for 
justices' courts and for county offices all of which are in 
existence at the present day. 

11. Penn himself was governor, and he sought assist- 
ance by creating a council of state, which, with the gov- 
ernor or his deputy, comprised an upper house in the 
Assembly. He made provision for the comfort of the 
people of the province by laying out the city of Phila- 
delphia and giving it a charter ; so that Philadelphia is the 
oldest incorporated city in English-speaking America. He 
made the price of land low, encouraged industry and 
economy, made provision for schools and for a university, 
and then returned to England. 

12. Penn's life was a benediction to mankind. He died 
in 1718. Montesquieu compares him to Lycurgus, saying 
that he overcame prejudices and "made peace his prin- 
cipal aim." He not only made Pennsylvania a home for 
the Friends, but a home for the persecuted of all nations. 
To Pennsylvania came Friends, Episcopalians, Scotch- 
Irish Presbyterians, and German Lutherans, and all were 
equally protected. In no other part of America was there 
so liberal and peaceful a spirit. 

13. The nationality of the people who made Pennsyl- 



THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 13 

vania their home is traceable in many of the counties of 
the Commonwealth. The Scotch-Irish settled in the 
western part of the State ; the Friends settled in the south- 
eastern part of the State, in Delaware, Philadelphia, Ches- 
ter and the adjoining counties ; people of German ances- 
try settled the rich counties of the anthracite coal-region. 
More than two centuries have passed, and the descendants 
of these early settlers are still to be found in the same sec- 
tions of the State that their ancestors occupied. 

14. Penn gave the people of this province his " Frame 
of Government " April 25, 1682. In this he laid down 
some principles of government well worthy of our under- 
standing and applicable to us at the present time : 

" I know some say, ' Let us have good laws, arid no 
matter about the men that execute them ; ? but let them 
consider that, though good laws do well, good men do 
better; for good laws may want good men, and be 
abolished or invaded by ill men ; but good men will never 
want good laws nor suffer ill ones." 

15. Penn said, further, that "the great end of all gov- 
ernment " is " to support power in reverence with the 
people, and to secure the people from the abuse of power ; 
that they may be free by their just obedience, and the 
magistrates honorable for their just administration ; for 
liberty without obedience is confusion, and obedience 
without liberty is slavery. To carry this evenness is 
partly owing to the constitution, and partly to the magis- 
tracy (the i^ublic officials chosen by the people) ; where 
either of these fail, government will be subject to convul- 
sions ; but where both are wanting it must be totally sub- 
verted ; then where both meet the government is like to 
endure. Which I humbly pray and hope God will please 
to make the lot of Pennsylvania." 

16. Penn's prayer has been answered. The principles 
of government which he advanced are the principles of 
our government to-day. He practised them faithfully. 



14 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Although the king had given him the land and it was 
legally his property, yet Penn recognized the natural 
rights of the Indians who for ages had roamed over it. 
On the west bank of the Delaware, at Shackamaxon, now 
called Kensington, a part of Philadelphia, under the 
spreading arms of an ancient tree, Penn met the chiefs of 
the Indian tribes who lived on his domain, and entered 
into a solemn treaty of friendship with them. " We are 
one flesh and blood, brothers," said Penn to the Indians, 
to whom no Englishman had ever uttered such words ; 
and a great chief replied, " We will live in love as long as 
the sun and moon shine ; we will ever live in peace, Onas ;" 
and by that name Penn was always known to the Indians. 
The promise was never signed and never broken. Penn 
bought the land of the Indians, paying them in such 
things as they desired, and they took freely of blankets, 
axes, kettles, knives, beads and looking-glasses, for these 
things had great value in their eyes. 

IT. The deputy governors whom the Penn family sent 
to rule Pennsylvania were not inspired with the principles 
of the great founder of the province. They valued Penn- 
sylvania only as a producer of wealth for their benefit. 
For many years there was a contest between the General 
Assembly of the province and its governor. The dispute 
was mainly about rents, taxes, the governor's salary and 
the governor's power to veto the acts of Assembly. 

18. Dr. Franklin, speaking of the veto power of the 
proprietary governor of Pennsylvania — and he might have 
said it of other colonial governors not elected by the 
people — said: "The negative of the governor was con- 
stantly made use of to extort money. No law what- 
ever could be passed without a private bargain with him. 
An increase of his salary or some donation was always 
made a condition ; till at last it became a regular practice 
to have orders in his favor on the treasury presented along 
with the bills to be signed, so that he might actually 



THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 15 

receive the former before he should sign the latter. When 
the Indians were scalping the Western people, the concur- 
rence of the governor in the means of self-defence could 
not be got till it was agreed that his estate should be 
exempted from taxation ; so that the people were to fight 
for the security of his property, whilst he was to bear no 
share of the burden." 

19. In 1776 the colony of Pennsylvania became a State, 
and a convention of the people, Benjamin Franklin chair- 
man, framed the first State constitution, which continued 
the civil institutions of colonial times, save that the gov- 
ernor was thenceforth elected by the people. The General 
Assembly treated the Penn family justly, and in 1779 
granted to the heirs of Penn the sum of $524,000 in full 
settlement of all disputes and claims of the family against 
the State of Pennsylvania. 

20. By the constitution of 1776 the legislature consisted 
of one house only, the Assembly — a name long familiar to 
the people. It is interesting to note that to this clay the 
laws of Pennsylvania are called " Acts of Assembly," and 
not statutes, as in some of the States. In 1789 a second con- 
stitution was framed, and ratified in the following year. 
This constitution provided for a legislature of two bodies 
and the usual tripartite government. A third constitution 
was ratified by the people in 1838, and a fourth, now in 
force, in 1873. In all these constitutions the ancient form 
of local government introduced by Penn has been main- 
tained. The duties of our county and township officers 
and their official titles are to-day the same as they were 
more than two centuries ago. 

21. The first seat of government of the State was in 
Philadelphia. In 1799 it was removed to Lancaster, where 
it remained for thirteen years. In 1812 it was removed to 
Harrisburg, the present seat of the State government. 

22. The principal changes that have been made in the 
government of the State are in the creation of bureaus, 



16 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

commissions, boards and departments for promoting the 
general welfare of the people and protecting interests un- 
known in the early history of the State. These changes 
have been caused by the development of the interests of 
the State. 

23. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has been a 
field fruitful of great events, rich in great men and con- 
spicuous in the civil history of our country. It was in 
Philadelphia, September 5, 1774, that the first Continental 
Congress assembled and organized the Revolutionary Gov- 
ernment, based its authority upon the people, and issued 
the famous Bill of Rights for America. 

24. In 1775 the second Congress met in Philadelphia, 
on the 10th of May. It took into consideration the whole 
nation ; it organized an army and navy ; adopted a mon- 
etary system or Treasury Department ; established a Post- 
office Department; and issued the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. Benjamin Franklin was made Postmaster-Gen- 
eral, and Robert Morris, another eminent Pennsylvanian, 
was chosen Financier of America. 

25. In 1787, in Philadelphia, there assembled the most 
celebrated gathering of able men ever seen in America 
— the men who framed the Constitution of the United 
States. 

" In that convention no other State could boast of such 
delegates as were sent by Pennsylvania. Foremost in fame 
was Franklin, who divided with Washington the admira- 
tion of the world. He was widely famed before many of 
his illustrious colleagues in the convention were born. 
In science, in diplomacy, in society, in letters, in practical 
business, in great public charities and in organizations of 
wide influence to this day, he was foremost ; and of all the 
Americans in an age of great men, he is still more talked 
and written about than any save Washington. As presi- 
dent of his State he sat most influential in the delegation, 
and, though too feeble by reason of age to participate 



18 THE CIVIL' GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

actively in the debates of the convention, by his presence 
and by his inexhaustible good humor and practical sa- 
gacity his influence was so great that it may be said that 
the Constitution could not have been framed without 
him." 

26. " Other influential Pennsylvanians in the conven- 
tion of 1787 were Thomas Mifflin, member of Assembly, 
and nine years governor of his State ; Robert Morris, the 
financier of the Revolution, delegate to Congress, a signer 
of the Declaration, first United States Senator from Penn- 
sylvania, and founder of the Bank of North America ; 
George Clymer, one of the signers, a delegate to Congress, 
and afterward a member of the House of Representatives ; 
Thomas Fitzsimons, a famous merchant of Philadelphia ; 
Jared Ingersoll, the leader of the bar of the State ; James 
Wilson, a student at four universities and the ablest con- 
stitutional lawyer in the convention, a frequent debater, 
afterward professor of law in the University of Pennsyl- 
vania, and appointed by Washington a justice of the Su- 
preme Court of the United States ; and Gouverneur Mor- 
ris, delegate to Congress, later governor of New York, and 
afterward one of its United States Senators. Morris was 
chosen by the convention to write the Constitution in its 
final form, because his colleagues recognized the finish 
and elegance of his style." * 

27. Pennsylvania, during the long Revolutionary strug- 
gle, was the scene of critical campaigns, of the suffering, 
hardships and sacrifices of patriots and of the varying 
fortunes of war. Valley Forge and Germantown and the 
valley of the Brandywine are historic spots. It was in 
Western Pennsylvania that the great struggle broke out 
between France and England for the possession of North 
America — a struggle which taught the colonies that 
they were capable of governing themselves. It was in 
Pennsylvania, at Gettysburg, that the world's greatest 

1 From Thorpe's Story of the Constitution. 



THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 19 

battle for human freedom was fought in 1863— a battle 
whose mighty and beneficent effects have rewritten the 
meaning of that constitution of the nation first written in 
Pennsylvania three-quarters of a century before. 

2S. Pennsylvania has not been wanting in great men in 
all departments of public affairs. Among her great gov- 
ernors are Mifflin, McKean, Snyder, Hiester, Curtin, Geary, 
Hartranft. Among her great judges are Shippen, Tilgh- 
man, Gibson, Black and Sharswood. 

29. In national affairs Pennsylvania has exercised a 
powerful influence. The first speaker of the House of Rep- 
resentatives, Frederick A. Muhlenberg, was from Pennsyl- 
vania. In Congress the State has always been ably repre- 
sented, and among the ablest have been Albert Gallatin, 
later secretary of the treasury, John Covocle, David S. 
Wilmot, Horace Binney, Jared Ingersoll, John Hickman, 
and Thaddeus Stevens, " the father of the public schools 
in Pennsylvania." Among the United States senators 
from Pennsylvania are Robert Morris, Albert Gallatin, 
George M. Dallas, James Buchanan and Simon Cameron. 
Of these, Buchanan became a president and Dallas a vice- 
president of the United States. This Commonwealth has 
furnished three secretaries of state ; seven secretaries of 
treasury ; six secretaries of war, among them Edwin M. 
Stanton ; two secretaries of the navy ; one secretary of the 
interior; three postmasters-general; seven attorneys-gen- 
eral; five justices of the supreme court; three presi- 
dents pro tern of the Senate; and four speakers of the 
House of Representatives. 

30. In educational affairs Pennsylvania has always 
manifested a commendable interest. Common schools are 
established in every township throughout the State, and 
through the influence of the system of county superin- 
tendents, aided by intelligent and earnest teachers, they 
are constantly advancing in efficiency and usefulness. 
High schools are found in all the chief cities and 



20 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

boroughs. Thirteen State normal schools aid in training a 
body of professional teachers. Academies, seminaries and 
select schools are to be found in every part of the State. 
More than twenty colleges offer opportunities for advanced 
study. The University of Pennsylvania, first suggested by 
William Penn, and founded by Benjamin Franklin in 
1740, is the fourth in order of time of the American 
universities. 

31. Pennsylvania is known as the " Kej 7 stone State " — 
a name suggested not only by the geographical position of 
the Commonwealth among the original thirteen States, 
but, in a large sense, on account of the moderation and 
wisdom of the action of the State in public affairs — a posi- 
tion referred to in an old popular song of 1790 : 

" Still Pennsylvania holds the scales, 
And neither South nor North prevails." 

In whatsoever direction we pursue the history of Pennsyl- 
vania, we meet with great men and deal with great ideas. 
Her founder set the fashion of her history, and her 
founder was one of the world's great and good men. 

32. What shall be the future of our Commonwealth ? 
That future depends upon the men and women, the boys 
and the girls of to-day. It is they who make the State. 
" Virtue, liberty and independence " can be spoken only 
of an intelligent, high-minded, industrial and law-abiding 
people — a people who build their government upon the 
deep foundations of the home. Throughout the wide 
world there is no other land so full of opportunities 
as our own. We are free to make our institutions ideal in 
their perfection. But our civil institutions depend upon 
the citizen for their strength and character. He makes the 
government in township, county, State and nation. His 
interests are entrusted to public servants of his own choos- 
ing. Upon him fall both the responsibilities and the bless- 
ings of free government. At the fireside we hear the story of 



THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 21 

Washington and of Lincoln ; in school we learn of the mak- 
ing of the States and of the nation ; we learn the nature 
of the State, its organization and its administration. We 
leave school and enter upon the active duties of life. 
Then our influence is for or against good government : we 
hinder or we promote the general welfare. Many years 
ago a child of five years became king of France. Until 
he was old enough to take upon himself the cares of his 
kingdom his guardians ruled in his name. On the day 
when he became of age his minister inquired of him, 
" Sire, to whom shall I now report ?" " To me," replied 
the king; "I am the state." And in this country, when 
a youth enters upon his manhood years, he may well say, 
" I am the state. Its interests, its honor, its history, are 
mine also." Popular government on a vast scale is for the 
first time on trial in this country. It is upon the indi- 
vidual citizens that its destiny depends. The work of good 
government is our work. " With malice toward none ; 
with charity for all ; with firmness in the right, as God 
gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work 
we are in." And we may then confidently expect the 
blessings of Providence to rest upon the Commonwealth 
of Pennsylvania. 




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p 

m 

03 
»— t 

DC 

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The Great Seal of the State of Pennsylvania. 




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CHAPTER II. 

THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA AT 
THE PRESENT TIME. 

oo^o* 

The Commonwealth. 

33. The Citizen. — The Constitution of the United States 
provides that " all persons born or naturalized in the 
United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof 
are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein 
they reside." Hence all men, women and children born 
or naturalized in the United States and subject to the 
jurisdiction thereof, residing in the State of Pennsylvania, 
are citizens of both the United States and of the State of 
Pennsylvania. But all citizens are not electors. The 
elector is a citizen who has the right to vote. The Consti- 
tution of the State prescribes the qualifications of an elec- 
tor. 1 

1 See Art. VIII. , page 106. Reference is made to the Constitution to 
familiarize the student with the Constitution itself, and to lead him to 
seek for information at the fountain-head. 

23 



24 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

34. The State Government. — The government of the 
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is vested in three depart- 
ments—the legislative, the executive and the judicial. 

The Legislative Department. 

35. The Legislative Power of the Commonwealth is 
vested in a General Assembly consisting of a Senate and 
a House of Representatives. 1 

36. The General Assembly or Legislature meets at 
12 o'clock noon on the first Tuesday in January of every 
second year (1895-97-99, etc.). It makes all the laws of 
the Commonwealth, but the laws it makes must not con- 
flict with the Federal Constitution nor with that of the 
State, or they may be declared unconstitutional by the 
courts, and therefore null and void. These laws provide 
for the dealings of the citizens with each other, such as 
making contracts and partnerships, buying and selling 
lands, houses, goods and property of all kinds, making 
mortgages, deeds, promissory notes, checks, etc. ; for the 
organization and government of corporations such as in- 
surance, railroad, telegraph, telephone and manufacturing 
companies ; for the prevention and punishment of crime ; 
for the establishment and support of charitable and educa- 
tional institutions; for establishing and regulating courts; 
for the government of counties, cities, boroughs, town- 
ships and school districts ; for the method of procedure in 
courts ; for the qualifications of electors ; and for all other 
matters in which the citizens of the State may have any 
interest. It is the duty of the General Assembly to make 
such laws as will promote the general welfare of the people 
of the State. All the laws of the State are enacted " by the 
authority of the people of the State." 

The State is divided by the General Assembly for elec- 
tion purposes into representative districts, State senatorial 
districts, congressional districts and judicial districts. The 
1 See Art. II. Sect. 1. 



THE LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT 25 

Assembly determines all matters connected with the taxa- 
tion required to furnish the income for carrying on the gov- 
ernment of the State. It elects two persons to represent 
the people of the State in the Senate of the United States. 
Members of the General Assembly are paid a salary for 
their services ; they are supplied with such stationery as 
they may need at the expense of the State; and they are 
allowed a sum of money called mileage to pay their trav- 
eling expenses in going to and returning from a session of 
the Assembly. 1 

37. The Senate consists of fifty senators, one for each 
senatorial district into which the State is divided. 2 The 
senator from each district is chosen by the electors of that 
district to serve for four years. The lieutenant-governor 
of the State is ex-officio president of the Senate. He is not 
a member of the Senate, and has no right to vote except 
w T hen the vote of the Senate is equally divided. The Sen- 
ate elects one of its own members president pro tempore, 
who appoints its committees unless the Senate orders 
otherwise, and who acts as president when the lieutenant- 
governor is absent. The Senate has the sole power to try 
impeachments and to confirm appointments made by the 
governor. 

38. The House of Representatives consists of two hun- 
dred and four members, chosen to serve for two years by the 
electors in the different representative districts into which 
the State is divided. 3 Each district elects its own represen- 
tatives. The House elects one of its own members as pre- 
siding officer or speaker, who appoints all the committees 
unless the House otherwise orders. The House has the 
sole right to institute impeachments and to originate bills 
for raising revenue. 4 

39. How the Laws are Made. — The manner of making 

1 See Art. II Sect. 8. 2 See Art. II Sect. 16. 3 See Art. II Sect. 17. 
4 For the qualifications of senators and representatives see Art. II 
Sect. 5. 



26 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

laws by the General Assembly is practically the same as 
by the Congress of the United States. 

A law may originate in the form of a bill in either 
house (except a bill for raising revenue, which must 
originate in the House of Representatives). 

The bill must be referred to a committee, returned there- 
from and be printed for the use of the members. 

It must be read in full in each house on three different 
days, and on its final passage it must, in each house, re- 
ceive the assent of a majority of the whole number of 
members, voting by yeas and nays, and the name of each 
member voting, and the way he voted, must be entered on 
the journal of each house respectively. 1 

If the bill be changed or amended in any respect by the 
other house, it must be returned to the house in which it 
originated, and the amendments must be approved by a 
majority of all the members, voting by yeas and nays, and 
the name of each member voting, and the way he voted, 
must be entered on the journal. 2 

If agreed to by a majority of all the members of both 
houses, the bill is sent to the governor. If he approves it, 
he signs it and the bill becomes a law. If he does not 
approve it, he vetoes it — i. e.he returns it with his objec- 
tions to the house in which it originated. If both houses 
re-pass the bill by a two-thirds vote of all the members, it 
becomes a law without the approval of the governor. If 
the governor fails either to sign or to return the bill within 
ten days from the time it was presented to him, it becomes 
a law, unless the Assembly, by adjourning, prevent its 
return, in which case it becomes a law unless the governor 
files the bill, with his objections to it, in the office of the 
secretary of the Commonwealth, and gives public notice 
of the same by proclamation within thirty days after 
the adjournment of the General Assembly. 3 



1 See Art. III. Sect 4- 2 See Art. III. Sect. 5. 3 See Art. IV. Sect. 15. 



THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT. 27 

The Executive Department. 

40. The Executive Power of the Commonwealth is 
vested by the constitution in the governor, lieutenant- 
governor, secretary of the Commonwealth, attorney-gen- 
eral, auditor-general, State treasurer, secretary of internal 
affairs and superintendent of public instruction. 1 

41. The Governor. — The supreme executive power of 
the State is vested in the governor. He is chosen by the 
electors of the State to serve one term of four years, and 
is not eligible to the office for the next succeeding term. 
His salary is $10,000 per annum. It is his duty to inform 
the General Assembly of the condition of the State, to 
recommend to its consideration such measures as he may 
think necessary and expedient and to see that the laws 
are faithfully executed. He is the commander-in-chief of 
the military and naval forces of the State, except when 
they are called into the actual service of the United States. 
He has the power to appoint, subject to the consent of the 
Senate, a number of important officers; to fill vacancies 
that may occur in any office under certain restrictions ; 2 to 
remit fines ; to grant reprieves ; and, on the recommenda- 
tion of the board of pardons, to grant commutations of 
sentence and pardons to persons convicted of crime, ex- 
cept in cases of impeachment; 3 to veto bills that he does 
not approve ; to disapprove of any item of a bill appro- 
priating money, and approve of other items of the same 
bill ; to call the Senate together to transact executive busi- 
ness only ; to convene both houses on extraordinary occa- 
sions ; and if at any time the two houses disagree as to 
adjournment, he may adjourn them for such time, not 
exceeding four months, as he shall think proper. All 

1 See Art. IV Sect. 1. 2 See Art. IV. Sect. 8. 

3 See Art. IV. Sect. 9. 



28 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

bills passed by the General Assembly that he approves, 
he signs, and they are then laws. 1 

42. The Lieutenant-Governor is chosen by the electors 
to serve one term of four years, and is not eligible to the 
office for the next succeeding term. He is ex-officio the 
president of the Senate. In case of the death, resignation, 
removal from office or disability of the governor, the pow- 
ers, duties and emoluments of the office devolve upon the 
lieutenant-governor. In case of the death, resignation, 
removal from office or disability of the lieutenant-governor, 
the duties and powers of the lieutenant-governor devolve 
upon the president pro tempore of the Senate. 2 The salary 
of the lieutenant-governor is $5000 per annum. 

43. The Secretary of the Commonwealth is appointed 
by the governor, and may be removed by him at any time. 
He keeps a record of all the official acts and proceedings 
of the governor. He is the keeper of the seal of the State, 
and affixes it to such instruments as the law requires; he 
is the custodian of all laws passed by the Assembly ; they 
and the veto messages of the governor are prepared for 
publication under his supervision ; the official bonds of 
all officers and notaries public 3 whom the governor com- 
missions are kept by him ; all appointments, commissions 
and proclamations issued by the governor are countersigned 
by him, and a record of them kept in his office ; he issues 
the charters of all corporations organized for profit, such as 

1 The Private Secretary of the governor has charge of the gov- 
ernor's official correspondence, and receives all applications for appoint- 
ments, commissions, etc. He remains at the executive office for the 
transaction of such business as may not require the personal attention 
of the governor. He is the secretary of the board of pardons. 

2 See Art IV. Sects. 13 and lJf. For the qualifications of the governor 
and lieutenant-governor see Art IV. Sects. 5 and 6. 

6 The Notary Public is appointed by the governor. He is em- 
powered to administer oaths. His chief duty is to attest signatures, 
statements, deeds and other documents, and to place his seal upon them 
as evidence of their authenticity. 



THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT. 29 

railroad, transportation, telegraph, mining and manufact- 
uring companies ; 1 he prepares and sends to the county 
commissioners and to the sheriff in each county the 
forms of the ballots to be used in elections for State of- 
ficers, State senators, judges of the courts, members of 
the national House of Representatives and presidential 
electors, with the names of the candidates that have been 
nominated for these offices; he is the custodian of the 
election returns of all national, State and county officers 
who receive executive commissions ; he compiles and pub- 
lishes the returns of the State elections ; he keeps a record 
of all death-warrants, respites, commutations and pardons. 
He is the agent of official communication between the 
State and other States and the United States. His salary 
is $4000 per annum. 

44. The Attorney-General is appointed by the gov- 
ernor, and may be removed by him at any time. He is 
the legal adviser of the governor and of the heads of de- 
partments in all matters of law relating to their depart- 
ments; he is the attorney of the Commonwealth; he 
prosecutes its claims against other parties, and defends 
it in suits at law brought against it. His salary is $4100 
per annum. 

45. The Auditor-General is chosen by the electors of 
the State to serve one term of three years, and is not eli- 
gible to the office for the next succeeding term. He ex- 
amines the condition of the State treasury annually ; he 
examines and settles all accounts between the Common- 
wealth and other parties ; he has the power to compel the 
attendance of all persons having accounts against the 
State, to cause them to produce their books and papers, 
to examine them under oath and to commit to prison 
any one who refuses to appear, to produce his books or to 
testify. His salary is $5200 per annum. 

1 Corporations organized for moral, educational or social purposes, 
and not for profit, are chartered by the county courts. 



30 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

46. The State Treasurer is chosen by the electors to 
serve one term of two years, and is not eligible to the 
office for the next succeeding term. For the faithful per- 
formance of his duties he gives a bond, satisfactory to the 
governor, in the sum of $500,000. It is his duty to re- 
ceive and receipt for all money paid into the State treasury, 
to apportion the revenues properly between the general 
fund and the sinking fund and to pay all warrants drawn 
by the proper officers. His salary is $6200 per annum. 

47. The Secretary of Internal Affairs is chosen by the 
electors to serve for four years. He inquires into the rela- 
tions of capital and labor in their bearings upon the social, 
educational and industrial welfare of all Classes of work- 
ing-people ; he exercises supervision over railroad, bank- 
ing, mining, manufacturing and other corporations; and 
he has charge of the records and of the business of the 
public land office of the State. His salary is $4600 per 
annum. 

48. The Superintendent of Public Instruction is ap- 
pointed by the governor for a term of four years. He has 
supervision of the public schools of the Commonwealth ; 
commissions county, city and borough superintendents 
and conducts the annual examinations of students for 
graduation in the State normal schools. 1 When required 
by citizens or school-officers he explains matters con- 
nected with the school law, the duties of school-officers, 
the rights and duties of parents, guardians, teachers and 

1 The State superintendent or his deputy is president of the board 
that examines the candidates for graduation in the State normal schools. 
Successful candidates receive diplomas which are life certificates and 
authorize the owner to teach in any county of the State except in Phil- 
adelphia. To owners of professional certificates given by county super- 
intendents, who may pass the examination of the board of examiners 
appointed by any county institute, he grants permanent certificates which 
are valid for life in the county for which they were issued, and in any 
other county in which they may be endorsed and ratified by the county 
superintendent thereof. 



THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT. 31 

pupils. He signs all orders for money to be paid out of 
the appropriation to common schools ; he reports to the 
General Assembly the condition and requirements of the 
common schools. His salary is $4000 per annum. 

49. The Secretary of Agriculture. — In 1895 the Gen- 
eral Assembly created the department of agriculture. The 
secretary of agriculture is appointed by the governor to 
serve for four years. It is his duty to encourage and pro- 
mote the development of agriculture, horticulture, for- 
estry, and kindred interests ; to investigate the adaptability 
of grains, fruits, grasses, and other crops to the soil and 
climate of the State, together with the diseases to which 
the} r are liable and the remedies therefor; to obtain and 
distribute information relative to the raising of stock and 
poultry; to obtain and publish information relating to 
the extent and condition of forest lands in the State ; to 
enforce the laws designed to protect forests from fire, 
depredations, and destruction ; the laws designed to pre- 
vent the adulteration of articles of food ; the laws relating 
to the inspection, sale, or transportation of agricultural 
productions and imitations thereof; the laws relating to 
the diseases of domestic animals, and the laws relating to 
the manufacture and inspection of commercial fertilizers. 
His salary is $3500 per annum. 

The governor appoints also a deputy-secretary of agri- 
culture to serve for four years ; he conducts farmers 1 in- 
stitutes throughout the State. His salary is $3000 per 
annum. 

49a. State Banking Department ; Commissioner of 
Banking ; Bank Examiners. — It is the duty of the com- 
missioner of the banking department to see that all laws 
affecting banking institutions and all other monetary asso- 
ciations are faithfully executed. These institutions are: 
banks incorporated under the laws of the State; real estate, 
trust, safe deposit, title-insurance, and mortgage compa- 
nies ; savings institutions ; building and loan associations ; 



32 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

and all other financial companies doing business in this 
State under charters granted by any other State. The 
commissioner of the banking department is appointed by 
the governor, to serve for four years ; he receives an an- 
nual salary of $6000. 

The commissioner appoints examiners, not exceeding 
ten in number, to assist in investigating and examining 
the affairs of the corporations in the State that are subject 
to examination ; he is required to make an annual report 
to the governor. The object in creating this department is 
to secure safety to the people who are depositors in any fiscal 
institution operating under State laws. The department is 
an important agency of the State in protecting depositors, 
business men, and the public generally against loss. 

49b. Administrative Officers, Bureaus, Boards and 
Commissions, created by act of Assembly from time to 
time as required, assist the executive officers in adminis- 
tering the government. They are generally appointed by 
the governor, with the consent of the Senate. They are the 
adjutant-general, 1 the State librarian, the superintendent 
of public buildings and grounds, the State printer, the 
State board of agriculture, the factory inspector, the bu- 
reau of statistics, the insurance department, the board of 
public charities, the State committee on lunacy, the State 
board of health, the State fishery commission, the State 
board of trade, the commission of soldiers' orphans schools, 
the State pharmaceutical examining board, the State boards 
of medical examiners, the State zoologist, the State com- 
missioner of forestry, the State veterinarian, the State 

1 The adjutant-general is appointed by the governor. He is chief of 
the governor's staff and is his military executive officer. He issues all 
orders of the governor to the National Guard of the State. Every 
male citizen of the State between eighteen and forty-five years of age, 
if not exempted by law, belongs to the militia. The organized militia 
constitutes the National Guard of the State. It consists of one division 
commanded by a major-general; the division is composed of three 
brigades, each commanded by a brigadier-general. 



THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT. 33 

board of veterinary medical examiners, the State live 
stock sanitary board, the State board of sinking-fund 
commissioners, the State board of undertakers, the board 
of examiners of State normal schools, the board of com- 
missioners of public grounds and buildings, and the State 
dairy and food commissioner. The names of these officers 
and boards indicate their duties in the work of carrying 
on the government of the Commonwealth. 



34 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

The Judicial Department. 

50. The Judicial Power of the Commonwealth is 
vested in a supreme court, in a court of intermediate 
appeal or superior court, and in lower courts known as 
courts of common pleas, courts of oyer and terminer and 
general jail delivery, courts of quarter sessions of the peace, 
orphans' courts, magistrates' courts, aldermen's courts 
and justices' courts. Some of these courts w r ere created 
by the Constitution, others by the General Assembly. 1 

51. The Supreme Court consists of seven judges chosen 
by the electors of the State. If two judges are to be chosen, 
no elector may vote for more than one, and if three are to 
be chosen, he may vote for but two, thus giving the mi- 
nority party the power to elect one of the judges. They 
are elected for one term of twenty-one years, and are not 
eligible for re-election. In case of a vacancy in the court 
the governor appoints a judge to fill the vacancy, who 
serves until a judge elected at the next general election is 
commissioned. The judges of the supreme court are 
called justices, to distinguish them from the judges of the 
lower courts. The justice longest in service is the chief 
justice. The jurisdiction of the supreme court extends 
over the entire State, and is both original and appellate. 2 
The original jurisdiction of the court is its authority to 
decide cases that originate or are first brought to trial in 
the supreme court; it is exercised in cases in which a 
corporation is the defendant in a suit brought to enjoin 
or prevent the corporation from doing a particular * act ; 
in cases in which persons confined or imprisoned peti- 
tion the court to decide whether their imprisonment is 
lawful; in cases commanding a lower court to perform 
a particular act ; and in cases in which the authority 
of a State officer is questioned. Its appellate juris- 

1 See Art. V. Sect. 1. 2 See Art. V. Sects. 2 and 3. 



THE JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT. 35 

diction is its authority to decide cases that come to the 
supreme court by appeal from a lower court; it is 
exercised in all cases that have been previously tried in 
a lower court, and which, as provided by law, have been 
appealed to the supreme court for a final decision. Most 
of the cases tried in the supreme court are appellate and 
have been previously tried in a lower court. When 
a case is appealed from a lower court to the supreme 
court, the evidence submitted in the lower court and the 
record of the case, printed in pamphlet form and known 
as the " paper book" of the case, are presented to the 
supreme court, which examines the evidence and hears 
the arguments of counsel. No new evidence is admitted, 
and there is no jury. The opinions of a majority of the 
justices form the opinion or decision of the court, which 
is final unless the case involves the Constitution or laws 
of the United States, when it may be appealed to one of 
the inferior courts of the United States, and possibly by 
successive appeals it may reach the supreme court of the 
United States. The reporter of the supreme court, who 
is appointed by the governor, compiles the decisions of the 
court and superintends their publication. These volumes 
constitute the Supreme Court Reports, and are the prece- 
dents for subsequent decisions by both the supreme court 
and the lower courts. The supreme court holds sessions 
each year in Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Pittsburgh. 
The salary of the chief justice of the supreme court is 
$8500 ; that of the other justices, $8000 per annum. 

5ia. The Court of Intermediate Appeal, or Superior 
Court, created by the General Assembly in 1895, consists of 
seven judges, learned in the law, elected for ten years. Six 
candidates may be voted for by the electors, thus securing 
minority representation similar to that provided by the 
Constitution in the organization of the supreme court. 
The court is required to meet at least once a year in Phil- 
adelphia, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Scranton, and Williams- 



36 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

port. It may meet at other county seats. The object in 
creating this court was to expedite the judicial business 
of the State by relieving the supreme court. The court 
has no original jurisdiction except that it may issue writs 
of habeas corpus. It has final and exclusive appellate juris- 
diction in civil cases in which the value in controversy does 
not exceed $1000 and in other cases as prescribed by law. 
The salary of a superior court judge is $7500 per annum. 

52. The Lower Courts. — The Commonwealth is divided 
into fifty -four judicial districts. Each county having a pop- 
ulation of forty thousand or more forms a separate judicial 
district, in each of which one or more judges are elected. 1 

Counties having a population of less than forty thou- 
sand are united to constitute a district or are attached to 
an adjoining district. Not more than four counties can be 
included in one district. In these united districts a judge 
is chosen jointly by the electors of the several counties 
composing the district. This judge is called the president 
judge. He must be " learned in the law." In each of 
the counties so united, one or more associate judges who 
need not be " learned in the law " are chosen by the elec- 
tors of the respective counties. 2 

The judges of the courts in each separate judicial dis- 
trict, and the president judge in the united districts, are 
chosen by the electors therein to serve for ten years ; the 
associate judges are elected to serve for five years. They 
are all eligible for re-election. Vacancies in the lower 
courts are filled in the same manner as in the supreme 
court. The salaries of the judges in the lower courts in 
Philadelphia are $7000 ; in Allegheny county, $6000 ; in 
Dauphin county, $5000 ; and in the other districts, $4000 
per annum. 

1 See page 124. 

2 See Art. V. Sect. 5. In the populous counties, instead of creating new 
judicial districts the number of the judges is increased ; thus Luzerne 
county has four, Allegheny county nine, and Philadelphia sixteen judges. 



THE JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT. 37 

The lower courts of the State consist of the courts of com- 
mon pleas, which decide civil cases ; the courts of oyer and 
terminer and general jail delivery, which decide cases of 
a felonious nature, such as murder, arson and burglary ; 
the courts of quarter sessions of the peace, having jurisdic- 
tion in such criminal cases as larceny and assault and 
battery ; orphans' courts, which settle the estates of 
deceased persons ; magistrates' courts, aldermen's courts 
and justices' courts, having jurisdiction in minor civil 
cases, 1 in such criminal cases as misdemeanors and minor 
violations of law, and having authority to release on bail 
or to commit to jail to await trial by the district court 2 all 
persons accused of more serious crimes. 

53. The Income of the State is derived from fees re- 
ceived for granting charters ; from taxes on the capital 
stock of corporations and associations, on loans created 
by corporations, on the gross receipts of transportation 
and electric light companies, on premiums received by 
insurance companies, on the net earnings of brokers, pri- 
vate bankers and saving institutions ; from the sale of land 
belonging to the State, from licenses, fines and penalties, 
from interest on Government bonds owned by the State, 
from the State tax on personal property, from the col- 
lateral inheritance tax, from escheats and from various 
other sources. 3 

1 Magistrates may have jurisdiction in civil cases to an amount not 
exceeding §100, and aldermen and justices of the peace to an amount 
not exceeding $300. Usually, cases in which the amount in dispute is 
not more than §100 are settled in these courts, but the absolute juris- 
diction of these officers is but §5.33, and when a larger amount is at 
issue the case may be appealed to the district court and finally to the 
higher courts. 

2 The district court is popularly known as the county court. 

3 The Collateral Inheritance Tax. — A person dying and leav- 
ing property may have two classes of heirs — direct and collateral. In 
general terms, direct heirs are parents, husband or wife, children and 
grandchildren. Collateral heirs are brothers and sisters, nephews and 



38 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

54. The State Tax on Personal Property is a tax of 
four mills on the dollar, payable by every citizen who is 
the owner of a mortgage, promissory note or obligation of 
any kind bearing interest, of certain kinds of bonds and 
stocks, of vehicles to hire or of an annuity yielding over 
two hundred dollars annually. 

nieces, cousins, etc. On any inheritance received by a collateral heir a 
tax must be paid to the State. 

Escheats. — When a person dies leaving property, not having made 
a will and having no heirs, either direct or collateral, to inherit the 
property, the State becomes the heir, and the property escheats to the 
State — that is, it becomes the property of the State. 



THE COUNTY. 39 



The County. 

55. The County. — The State of Pennsylvania is com- 
posed of sixty-seven counties, each of which has an organ- 
ized government of its own, subordinate to the government 
of the State. New counties may be organized by the Gen- 
eral Assembly, but no new county may be established less 
than four hundred square miles in extent or with less than 
twenty thousand inhabitants. 1 Each county is a corpora- 
tion. The officers of the county are the clerks of the courts, 
the prothonotary, the recorder of deeds, the register of 
wills, the district attorney, the jury commissioners, the 
county solicitor, the county commissioners, the sheriff, the 
county treasurer, the county auditors or county controller, 
the county surveyor, the coroner, the directors of the poor, 
the mercantile appraisers, and the county superintendent 
of schools. Some of the county offices were created by 
the Constitution, others by the General Assembly. 2 All 
the county officers except the county solicitor, the mercan- 
tile appraisers and the county superintendent of schools 
are chosen by the electors to serve for three years, and 
they must have been citizens and residents of the county 
for at least one year previous to their election. Some 
county officers are paid a salary for their services, and 
some are paid by fees. There is considerable variation in 
the compensation of county officers in different parts of 
the State. 3 

1 See Art. XIII. 

2 See Art. XIV. In addition to the officers named, there are in some 
counties officers, known as prison inspectors, appointed by the courts or 
by the county commissioners to serve for one year. In some counties 
the county commissioners are ex-officio prison inspectors. 

3 This variation is due to special legislation. Whether the officials 
in any county are paid by salary or by fees, and the amounts thereof, 
can be accurately learned only therein. (See Art. XIV. Sect. 5.) 



40 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

56. The County Courts are the courts of the judicial 
districts into which the State is divided. 1 

In a county forming a separate judicial district the 
judges and all the officers of the court are chosen by the 
electors of the county ; the number of courts and of the 
judges is determined by the amount of its population and 
legal business. In some of the counties the functions of all 
of the different courts, common pleas, oyer and terminer, 
quarter sessions and orphans' courts, are exercised by one 
court with but one judge, while in Philadelphia sixteen 
judges are needed to dispose of the business of the courts. 

When several counties are united to form a judicial dis- 
trict, the president judge is chosen jointly by the electors 
of the several counties composing the district, but the asso- 
ciate judges and the other court officers in each of the 
united counties are chosen by the electors therein. Each 
of the united counties has its own court, and the pres- 
ident judge presides in turn in each of them. 2 

57. The Clerks of the Courts, the Prothonotary, the 
Recorder of Deeds and the Register of Wills. — Origi- 
nally the duties of all of these officers were performed by 
one person, the prothonotary. At the present time in some 
counties one person is chosen to act as prothonotary and 
clerk of the courts, and one person as register of wills and 
recorder of deeds. In a few counties one person only is 
chosen to perform the duties of all four of these officers. 

Usuallv, the clerk of the courts is the clerk of the courts 
of quarter sessions and of oyer and terminer ; he frequently 
acts as clerk of the orphans' court, although in some coun- 
ties a separate clerk is chosen for this court. 8 

The clerks of the courts attend personally at all the ses- 
sions of the courts, make a record of their proceedings, and 
certify to these records ; they issue attachments or notices 

1 See Art. V. Sect. 5, and page 124. 2 See note, p. 124. 

3 The number of clerks of the courts and their respective duties in 
any county can be accurately learned only therein. 



THE COUNTY. 41 

calling into court such persons as the judges may direct to 
be present ; they call jurors and witnesses before the court 
and administer the oath to them, and they perform such 
other duties as may be necessary. 

The clerk of the court of quarter sessions has charge of 
all business relating to liquor licenses and to laying out 
new roads or streets. He receives and keeps a record of 
the returns of township, borough and city elections. 

The prothonotary is the clerk of the court of common 
pleas. 1 He has charge of the seal of the court, and affixes it 
to all writs, processes and documents that require it. The 
records of all the business of the court are in his possession. 
All judgments and mechanics' liens 2 are entered on his 
docket. He is empowered to administer oaths and affirma- 
tions in conducting the business of his office. He reports 
annually to the secretary of the Commonwealth the num- 
ber and nature of criminal cases, acquittals and convic- 
tions in the criminal courts. He receives and keeps a 
record of the returns of county, State and national elections. 

In the office of the register of wills are recorded and 
kept the wills of all deceased persons. A copy of the will 

1 In Philadelphia the prothonotary is chosen by the judges of the 
courts. In some counties the prothonotary is clerk of the courts of 
oyer and terminer and of quarter sessions ; in others he is clerk of the 
orphans' court. By the act of Assembly of 1893 the clerk of the 
orphans' court keeps a record of births and deaths in the county, from 
reports furnished by the assessors of taxes. 

2 A judgment is an evidence of debt. It may be obtained by a suit at 
law, or it may be given voluntarily by the debtor. In the latter case it 
is called "judgment by confession." Judgments when recorded in the 
prothonotary's office constitute claims against the real estate of the 
debtor, and take precedence in the order in which they are recorded. 

Mechanics and those who furnish material have a claim called a 
lien upon buildings which they have constructed or repaired, or for 
which they have furnished the material. This lien must be filed with 
the prothonotary within six months after the completion of the work. 
It is a first claim on the building. 



42 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

is given to the executors named in the will. If a person 
dies leaving property and making no disposition of it by 
will, the register appoints administrators, who have power 
to distribute the property as provided by law. The division 
of the estate of a deceased person is made under the super- 
vision of the orphans' court. 1 

The recorder of deeds is an important officer to the com- 
munity. He has charge of the books in which are entered 
the record of all transfers of real estate. 

The people are constantly buying and selling land, 
making agreements, executing deeds and mortgages, form- 
ing partnerships and contracts of various kinds. All trans- 
fers of property in the county, all deeds, mortgages and many 
other papers, are by law required to be recorded in the office 
of the recorder. So important is the matter of time in re- 
cording these documents that every paper entered of rec- 
ord is marked with the day of presentation ; some papers, 
such as mortgages, are marked with the exact hour of the 
day when presented. The purpose of so much detail is 
to fix exactly the time when a claim of right is made. 
Claims of right often rank according to their priority. 

58. The District Attorney. — It is the duty of the dis : 
trict attorney to prepare the indictment or formal charge 
against accused persons and submit it to the grand jury, 
and to prosecute all persons charged with the commission 
of crime or offences against the law who are brought before 
the court for trial. The duties of the district attorney are 
such that a lawyer must necessarily be chosen for this office. 

59. The Jury Commissioners 2 are two officers who, in 
connection with one of the judges, select each year, from 
the whole body of electors of the county, a sufficient num- 

1 In some counties the register of wills is clerk of the orphans' court. 
(See Art V. Sect. 22.) 

2 In electing jury commissioners; no elector may vote for more than 
one candidate, thus giving the minority party the power to elect one of 
the commissioners. 



THE COUNTY. 43 

ber of sober, intelligent and judicious persons to serve as 
jurors in cases brought before the courts for trial. The 
total number of jurors selected is decided by the judge, 
who estimates the number required for the year from the 
probable need of the courts. The electors are selected 
from all the cities, boroughs and townships in the county in 
proportion to their whole number of electors. The names 
of the electors selected are placed in the jury- wheel. Pre- 
vious to each term of court the jury commissioners and 
the sheriff draw from the jury- wheel the names of those 
electors who are to serve on the jury during the next 
term. The first twenty-four drawn constitute the grand 
jury; 1 there are then drawn a sufficient number to serve 

1 One of the grand jurymen is always excused, so that but twenty- 
three of them serve. The district attorney submits to them the indict- 
ment, or written charges and evidence against accused persons. They 
examine the evidence, and if twelve of them agree that it is sufficient 
to justify a trial, they write on the back of the indictment "A true 
bill," and the accused person must then be tried by the court. If 
twelve of them do not agree that the evidence is sufficient, they write 
on the indictment " Not a true bill" or "Ignored," and the accused per- 
son is discharged. The district attorney has power in any case to enter 
a nolle prosequi. This means that he will not prosecute or proceed any 
further in the case, and the accused is discharged. A nolle prosequi does 
not acquit the accused : he may be indicted again. 

A Criminal Case is one in which suit is brought in the name of 
the Commonwealth against an accused person for taking or endanger- 
ing the life, health, property or reputation of a citizen. The grand 
jury having found " a true bill," the case comes into court for trial. 
The State is the plaintiff, or the one that complains, and the accused 
person is the defendant. The prosecution is conducted by the district 
attorney. A jury of twelve is drawn and sworn to decide the case 
according to the evidence submitted. In selecting the jury the district 
attorney and the attorney for the accused may each peremptorily chal- 
lenge and reject four jurors without assigning any reason. Each attor- 
ney may challenge and reject as many more jurors as the court will 
permit for cause — that is, if he can show cause why they should not 
be allowed to serve. The district attorney first presents the case to the 
jury, and submits the witnesses and evidence in support of the prose- 



44 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

as petit jurors, who decide the cases tried in the courts, 
the number needed being estimated by the judge. 

cution. The attorney for the defendant follows with his statement of 
the case, and submits the witnesses and evidence for the defence. The 
witnesses on both sides are sworn or affirmed to tell nothing but the 
truth in their statements. This imparts solemnity to the proceedings 
and makes each witness guilty of perjury if he does not tell the truth. 
The judge reviews the evidence and explains to the jury the law which 
applies in the case, after which the jury retires to consult and deliber- 
ate upon the verdict. During their consultation they cannot communi- 
cate with any one but the judge. A verdict is the unanimous opinion 
of the jury. Their verdict is " Guilty " or " Not guilty." If the ac- 
cused is found guilty, the sentence is imposed by the judge. Some- 
times a person found guilty is granted a new trial for reasons satisfac- 
tory to the judge ; sometimes the case is appealed to the supreme court, 
if permission to do so is granted by one of the justices of the supreme 
court. The supreme court may decide the case or may order a re- 
trial by the lower court. If the jury disagree, they are discharged, and 
the accused is tried again before another jury, except in case of murder 
or other crime involving the death penalty, in which cases the supreme 
court has decided that the accused cannot be tried again, as the Consti- 
tution provides that " No person shall for the same offence be twice put 
in jeopardy of life." (See Art 1. Sect, 10.) If the accused is found " Not 
guilty," he cannot be tried again for the same offence. 

A Civil Case originates in a breach of contract, which is an agree- 
ment to do or not to do a particular thing. Contracts are expressed — 
that is, stated formally in writing or orally before witnesses — or implied 
— that is, such as reason and justice dictate. If I employ a person to 
work for me, the law implies that I shall pay him for his services. It 
is implied in all contracts that if I fail to perform my agreement I shall 
pay the other party such damages as he may sustain by my neglect. 

Civil cases are not acted upon by the grand jury. The party who 
brings the suit is the plaintiff; the one who defends himself against 
the suit is the defendant. Each party usually seeks the advice of an 
attorney. If the parties cannot come to an amicable settlement, the 
case is taken into court for trial. Before the trial begins a jury is drawn 
and sworn to decide the case according to the evidence presented. In 
selecting the jury twelve jurors are drawn. If either side is not satis- 
fied with the twelve jurors as drawn, eight more are drawn, and from 
these twenty, each attorney challenges or rejects four ; the twelve remain- 
ing compose the jury. By mutual consent the case may be settled by 



THE COUNTY. 45 

60. The County Solicitor is chosen by the county 
commissioners; he appears before the courts and acts as 
the county's attorney in all civil actions to which the 
county is a party. He advises the county officers on all 
matters of law connected with their departments, and acts 
for the county in all cases in which its legal interests are 
affected. 

61. The County Commissioners are three officers who 
erect and exercise supervision over the public buildings 
and structures of the county, such as the court-house, the 
jail, and the bridges. They have the power to revise and 
correct the valuations of property as made by the assess- 
ors; they determine the amount of money necessary to 
be raised by taxation for the government of the county, 
and fix the rate of taxation ; they instruct the assessors ; 
they verify the standards of weights and measures, so that 
the people shall not be cheated by false balances ; they 
supply the tickets or ballots to be used at all elections, and 
provide suitable polling-places throughout the county ; they 
authorize the payment of the county funds ; and they rep- 
resent the county when a suit at law is on trial in which 
the county is a party. They are empowered to borrow 
money for county purposes, subject to the limitations pre- 
scribed by the State Constitution. 1 

62. The Sheriff is the executive officer of the county 
and of its courts. He is the constable of the county, and 

the judge alone, but usually it is decided by the jury. The method of 
trying a civil case is, in the main, similar to that in a criminal case. 
The verdict of the jury is " For the plaintiff" or " For the defendant." 
In most civil cases the jury fixes the amount of damages, and the 
amount named is a part of the verdict. Either the plaintiff or the 
defendant may appeal the case to the supreme court if the verdict of 
the jury is not satisfactory. 

1 See Art. IX. Sect. 8. At the election for the three commissioners 
no elector may vote for more than two candidates. This gives the mi- 
nority party the power to elect one of the commissioners. (See Art. 
XIV. Sect. 7.) 



46 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

has jurisdiction over all its territory. The decrees of a 
county court, if to be executed in another county, are exe- 
cuted by the sheriff of that county ; if to be executed in 
another State, they are executed, with the approval and 
direction of the governor of that State, through a sheriff 
in that State. If a taxpayer refuses to pay his taxes on 
real estate after assessment and demand by the proper 
officers, the sheriff is empowered by the State to seize the 
property of the delinquent and expose it for sale. From 
the proceeds of the sale he deducts the taxes and the ex- 
penses of the legal proceedings and sale, and returns the 
remainder, if any, to the former owner of the property. 
He serves all processes of court both in civil and crim- 
inal matters. When necessary, he sells property belong- 
ing to debtors who have confessed judgment, 1 or against 
whom judgments have been decreed by the courts. 
From the nature of his office he receives large sums of 
money, and is consequently under heavy bonds. He is 
usually the highest paid officer in the county. He has 
the care of the county prisons, and is responsible for the 
safekeeping of the prisoners. He assists the jury commis- 
sioners in drawing juries, and has charge of the jury- wheel. 
He summons electors who have been drawn as jurors, 
notifying them when to appear in court. He issues procla- 
mations for all elections, and is required to maintain the 
peace of the county. In case of a riot he may summon 
the posse comitatus, that is, the citizens of the county, to 
assist him. If this aid is not sufficient, he may call upon 
the governor of the State. If the State is unable to quell 
the violence, the governor may call upon the President, 
who shall in that case employ the armed forces of the 
United States for the maintenance of the laws of the State. 
He is not eligible for election for two successive terms. 2 
63. The County Treasurer receives all moneys paid 

1 See note 2, page 41. 2 See Art. XIV. Sect. 1. 



THE COUNTY, 47 

into the county treasury, such as taxes, fines and license- 
fees. He transmits to the State treasurer the State tax col- 
lected in the county, and all other moneys received by 
him for the State. He pays out the county's money upon 
warrants issued by the county commissioners or by other 
officers, as provided by law. 1 In his office are preserved 
the financial records of the county. He is under bonds 
for the faithful performance of his duties and for the safe- 
keeping of the county's money. He is not eligible for 
election for two consecutive terms. 2 

64. The County Auditors. — In counties having a popu- 
lation of less than one hundred and fifty thousand, three 
auditors are elected, whose duty it is to examine the ac- 
counts of officers who have received and disbursed the 
county's money, and to publish an annual report of the 
county finances. 3 

64a. The County Controller.— In counties having a. 
population of one hundred and fifty thousand and over, a 
county controller is elected whose duties are similar to 
those of the county auditors. He has the supervision of 
the financial accounts of the county officers and reports to 
the county commissioners any default or delinquency that 
he may discover. 

65. The County Surveyor is elected to secure accuracy 
and skill in the construction of roads and bridges and in 
the survey of land. His knowledge tends to bring all en- 
gineering work done for the county to a desirable uniform- 
ity and economy. He prepares maps of the county, makes 

1 The directors of the poor and some other officers are in some 
counties, through special legislation, empowered to issue warrants pay- 
able by the county treasurer. 

2 In some counties the State and county taxes are collected by the 
county treasurer or by collectors appointed by him. 

8 In electing county auditors no elector may vote for more than two 
candidates, thus giving the minority party the power to elect one of the 
auditors. {See. Art. XIV. Sect. 7.) 



48 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

plans of surveys, and frequently serves the cause of justice 
by surveying disputed claims. 

66. The Coroner. — The principal duty of the coroner 
is to hold an inquisition, commonly called "the coro- 
ner's inquest," with the assistance of six electors called 
" the coroner's jury," over the body of any person who 
may have come to a violent death or who has died in 
prison. He commits to prison, to await trial, any one 
found guilty of homicide by the coroner's jury. The 
duties of the coroner are of great importance to society, 
both in bringing criminals to punishment and in pro- 
tecting innocent persons from accusation. In case of the 
death of the sheriff or of his removal from office, the 
coroner acts as sheriff until another sheriff is elected. 

67. The Directors of the Poor are three officers who, 
in those counties having an almshouse, have the manage- 
ment of it, and who take care of the paupers of the county. 
One director is chosen annually to serve for three years. 

68. The Mercantile Appraiser is appointed annually 
by the county commissioners to assess the tax on all ven- 
ders of merchandise. He ascertains the amount of yearly 
sales of each dealer, and on this amount a tax is assessed. 
This tax belongs to the State. 1 

69. The County Superintendent of Schools. — This 
officer is elected triennially by the school directors of the 
county assembled in convention. His duties are to ex- 
amine and to grant certificates to persons desiring to 
become teachers in the public schools; to conduct teachers' 
institutes, to visit schools, generally to promote the edu- 
cational interests of the county, and to report annually to 
the State superintendent the condition of the schools of 
the county. 2 

1 In Philadelphia the mercantile appraisers are appointed by the 
State auditor-general and the city treasurer. 

2 According to the ability and experience of the candidate, the super- 
intendent grants either a provisional certificate which authorizes the 



THE COUNTY. 49 

The county officers usually have their offices at the 
county-seat, a town convenient of access from all parts 
of the county. The size and shape of a county are deter- 
mined by the legislature at the time of its creation ; its 
extent coincides practically with the common interests of 
a group of people. Experience has proved that for con- 
venience in government a county should have about four 
hundred square miles; usually in a county of this size 
a citizen may leave his home, attend to any business he 
may have at the county-seat, and return the same day. 
As the facilities for travel improve, the interests of the 
people of a county become more identified. Their county 
interests cause them to assemble at county fairs and county 
meetings and give them cause for a proper county pride. 

Many counties are named after distinguished men, as 
Washington, Adams, Franklin, Fulton, Jefferson, McKean, 
Monroe, Perry, Wayne ; others are named after cities and 
towns in England — Chester, York, Somerset, Northamp- 
ton ; some have Indian names — Susquehanna, Wyoming, 
Indiana, Juniata. 

The division of the State into counties, and our system 
of county government, originated in similar features that 
existed in England long before the Norman conquest ; but 

owner of it to teach for one year, or a professional certificate which 
authorizes the owner of it to teach until one year after the expiration 
of the term of office of the superintendent who granted it. 

The salary of the county superintendent is determined by the school 
directors of the county in their triennial convention. A State law 
fixes the maximum salary at $2000 per annum and the minimum 
salary at $1000, according to the size of the county, the number of the 
schools and the length of the school terms. The directors may deter- 
mine upon a higher salary than $2000, conditioned that any amount 
above $2000 shall be taken out of the county's share of the State appro- 
priation to schools. 



50 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

the officers of the county, or shire, as it was then called, 
were not chosen by the people : they were appointed either 
by the king or by a representative of the king. 1 

1 The early colonists of this country brought with them from England 
the forms and customs with which they were familiar. England, before 
the Norman conquest, was divided into shires, a shire being a share or 
part of the whole country. The executive officer in the shire was the 
shire-reeve, the predecessor of our sheriff; the power of the sheriff to 
call the posse comitatus to his aid may readily be traced to the old " hue 
and cry." 2 When the Normans conquered England they changed the 
name of shire to county. In early English literature we may read of 
the " crowner," an officer appointed by the Crown, who has his suc- 
cessor in the coroner of to-day. 

2 Kead Chapter III., page 22, Thorpe's Course in Civil Government 



THE TOWNSHIP. 51 



The Township. 

TO. The Township. — Each county in this State is com- 
posed of townships, each of which has an organized local 
government, subordinate to the government of the county 
in which it is located and to the government of the State. 1 
Townships may be divided and new townships formed by 
a majority vote of the electors of the proposed new town- 
ships, permission to vote for this purpose having first been 
granted by the county court on the petition of the electors 
interested. Townships are empowered to borrow money 
for township purposes, subject to the limitations prescribed 
by the State Constitution. 2 The township is the unit of 
civil government in the State. The officers of the town- 
ship chosen by the electors are the justices of the peace, the 
constable, the school directors, the supervisors, the assessors 
of taxes, the tax-collector, the auditors and the township 
clerk. In some towmships a treasurer, a clerk and tw 7 o 
overseers of the poor are elected. 3 

71. The Justice of the Peace. — The humblest court 
in the land, the court upon which all other courts are 
founded, and the court of greatest antiquity, is the jus- 
tice's court. The justice of the peace presides in this 
court and hears and determines suits at law. These suits 
grow out of the interests and disputes constantly arising 

1 See Art. XIV. Sect. 6. 2 See Art IX. Sect. 8. 

3 The Township Treasurer has the care of the township's money, 
which he pays out on orders drawn by the supervisors. 

The Township Clerk acts as secretary for the supervisors; he 
keeps a record of stray cattle and other animals and notifies the 
owners thereof. 

Overseers of the Poor. — In townships located in a county that 
has no county almshouse, two overseers of the poor are elected, who 
determine the amount of money to be raised by taxation for the relief 
of the poor of the township, and expend it for their support. 



52 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

in every community. Usually, suits in which the value in 
dispute is not more than one hundred dollars are decided 
by the justice; 1 from his decision, if the value in dispute 
exceeds $5.33, the parties may appeal to the county court, 
and subsequently to the supreme court of the State. Two 
justices are chosen by the electors to serve for five years, but 
frequently only one of them applies for his commission. 2 

The justice is authorized to issue warrants for the arrest 
of any one who violates the laws or is accused of crime. 
In cases of misdemeanor or minor violations of the law 
he imposes upon the offender a fine or short imprisonment; 
in more serious cases he sends the case to the county 
court, and releases the accused person on his giving bail 
or security to appear in court when summoned for trial. 
If the accused cannot give bail satisfactory to the justice, 
and in cases which are not bailable, such as murder, the 
accused is sent to jail, where he remains until his case is 
tried in court, unless he is released by a judge of the court 
through a writ of habeas corpus. 3 

The justice of the peace is authorized to administer 
oaths or affirmations, to perform the marriage ceremony 
and to attest signatures, deeds and other documents. 
Under some circumstances the justice of the peace is 
empowered to perform in the township the duties of 
the coroner. A justice of the peace in any township 
has jurisdiction throughout the county. 

72. The Constable is elected to serve for three years. 
He holds an office of great antiquity. He is responsible 
for the peace of the community. Under the authority of 
a ivarrant issued by a justice of the peace or of a judge 

1 See note page 37. 

2 The justice must be commissioned by the governor before he can 
exercise the duties of his office. 

3 A writ of habeas corpus is an order issued by a judge directing the 
sheriff to produce the accused person in court, that the cause of his im- 
prisonment may be inquired into. 



THE TOWNSHIP. 53 

of the courts, he arrests accused persons. ! delivers them 
at the county jail when committed thereto by the justice, 
examines premises suspected of containing stolen goods and 
levies upon and sells the property of debtors when judg- 
ment has been obtained against them in the justice's court. 
He serves all notices, subpoenas and summonses issued by 
the justice, and those issued to him by the courts; he 
gives public notice of all elections; and he attends at 
each term of the county court to testify in cases of 
which he may have information. 

73. School Directors. — The educational interests of 
the community are committed to a board of six directors, 
two of whom are elected annually to serve for three years. 
They regulate the length and occurrence of the school 
term, the order of school studies, the selection of text- 
books and the supply of school material and furniture ; 
they employ and discharge teachers and superintendents; 
and they determine the amount of money to be raised 
by taxation for building school-houses and for maintain- 
ing schools. They are empowered to borrow money for 
purchasing ground for school purposes and for erecting 
school-buildings. 2 Once every three years the school di- 
rectors of the county meet in convention and elect a 
county superintendent of schools. They receive no com- 
pensation for their services. Women may be chosen to 
serve as school directors and as superintendents ; these are 
the only offices to which they are eligible in this State. 

74. The Supervisors are responsible for the condi- 
tion of the public roads. The electors in each township 
annually choose two supervisors, who determine the 
amount of money to be raised by taxation for road pur- 
poses. They keep a record of their receipts and expendi- 

1 If he is unable to arrest an accused person or to subdue a riot, he 
may call upon the posse comitatus, that is, the citizens of the township, to 
help him. If their aid is not sufficient, he may call upon the county 
sheriff. (See fl 62, page 46.) 2 See Art. IX. Sects. 8 and 10. 



54 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

tures, and submit the same to the township auditors. The 
highways of this country are, as a rule, inferior to those of 
Europe, but in many parts of this State earnest efforts 
are being made looking to a systematic and methodical 
improvement of the condition of our public roads. 1 

75. The Assessor of Taxes is chosen by the electors to 
serve for three years. 2 He receives from the county com- 
missioners an order called a precept, requiring him to make 
out and return to them a just and accurate list of all tax- 
able persons and property within the township, with a just 
assessment and valuation of such property. This general 
assessment is made once every three years, and is called 
the " triennial assessment." In the other two years the 
assessor re-assesses property which has advanced in value 
or on which new buildings have been erected or old ones 
improved. 3 The assessor is required also to ascertain from 
citizens the value of property belonging to them, if any, 
liable to the State tax. 4 The elector who owns no property 
is assessed for his profession or occupation, on which he 
pays a small tax for the use of the county. The assessor 
each year prepares a list of all the electors of the township 
for the use of the election officers. 5 He reports annually 

1 There is considerable variation in the matter of supervision of 
roads in different parts of the State. In some townships three or 
more supervisors are elected ; in some, the care of the roads is sold at 
auction to the lowest bidder. It is a common practice to allow the 
property -owner to work on the roads and assist in keeping them in 
order instead of paying his road-tax. 

2 Two assistant assessors are also elected, who serve only during the 
year in which the triennial assessment is made. 

3 If a citizen thinks his property has been assessed too high, he may 
appeal to the county commissioners, and from them to the county court, 
for a re-valuation. 

4 The State tax is a tax of four mills on the dollar on certain kinds 
of property, and is collected for the use of the State. (See ^ 54, page 38.) 

5 The law provides that this list shall be displayed upon the door of 
the building in which the election is held, for three months immediately 
preceding the fall election. 



THE TOWNSHIP. 55 

to the clerk of the orphans' court the births and deaths in 
the township. As the assessment of property determines 
the amount of tax that each citizen has to pay, the assessor 
should always be a man of integrity and sound judgment. 1 

76. The Tax-Collector is chosen by the electors to 
serve for three years. He collects from the taxpayers 
the amount of tax due from them. The methods of col- 
lecting taxes vary in the State. In some townships the 
State and county taxes are collected by the county treas- 
urer or by collectors appointed by him. The roacl-tax is 
usually collected by the supervisors or by a collector ap- 
pointed by them. In some townships the school directors 
appoint a collector of the school-tax. In some tow T nships 
the tax-collector chosen by the electors collects all the taxes. 

77. The Auditors. — In order to learn from time to time 
how the township money is being used,- three auditors are 
chosen by the electors, one being chosen each year to serve 
for three years. The auditors annually examine the ac- 
counts of the school directors, supervisors, overseers of 
the poor and other township officers, and publish a re- 
port showing the receipt and expenditure of the township 
money. 

The township is one of the oldest institutions in gov- 
ernment; we can trace its history back to our Saxon 
ancestors in the wilds of Germany. Groups of families 
there met together to make such regulations as common 
interests required. "Around the group of houses in a 
German village there was arranged, for purposes of de- 
fence, a hedge or a fence, called a tun. The village with 
the surrounding country containing the fields and pastures 
of the townsmen was called the tun-scipe or township." In 
New England and in some of the Western States the 
county is divided into towns, and not into townships. In 

1 Read *[ 100, p. 58, Thorpe? s Course in Civil Government. 



56 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

some of the Southern States the county is divided into 
parishes. In Louisiana the county is known as the parish. 
In the Western States the public domain is divided into 
tracts of land six miles square, called congressional town- 
ships, which may or may not be identical with the civil 
townships or towns into which a county is divided. A 
town in New England is similar to a township in this 
State. In the New England town the government is car- 
ried on directly by the electors assembled in the town 
meeting. l 

The School District. 
78. For the convenience of the people, the townships 
are divided into school districts, in which, minor matters 
connected with the operations of the schools are usually 
attended to by the school directors residing within the dis- 
tricts, subject to the approval of the township school-board. 
In boroughs and other thickly-settled communities, the 
district is usually formed into an independent school dis- 
trict, in w T hich the electors choose a board of school direc- 
tors which has charge of the schools of the district, and 
which has the same powers as a township school-board. 2 

1 Head paragraphs 39, 91, 225 and 226, Thorpe's Course in Civil Gov- 
ernment. 

2 See 1f 73, page 53. When the people of any community desire to 
form an independent school district, a petition, signed by not less than 
twenty tax-payers, residing within the proposed district, is presented to 
the court of quarter sessions, asking for the formation of an independ- 
ent district. If the court approves, the petition is granted and the 
district incorporated. 



THE BOROUGH. 57 



The Borough. 

79. The Borough. 1 — When the population of a com- 
munity increases to such an extent, and its interests be- 
come so varied, as to require a form of government with 
greater powers than that of the township, it usually forms 
itself into a borough by a majority vote of the electors 
and the approval of the county court. 2 In a small, newly- 
formed borough the government is similar to that of the 
township, the main difference being the provision for a 
burgess or mayor and a council chosen by the electors. 
In the larger boroughs, having a population of several 
thousand, the form of government is mainly the same as 
in the small boroughs, but is more complex, owing to the 
more varied and diverse interests of a greater number of 
people. When the welfare of the borough requires it, the 
county court may divide it into wards on the petition of a 
majority of the electors. When the population of a bor- 
ough amounts to ten thousand, it may be chartered as a 
city, if a majority of the electors at a general election shall 
so decide. In most of the States our large boroughs would 
be called cities. The officers of the borough are the bur- 
gess or mayor, the councilmen, assessor, tax-collectors, 
treasurer, auditors, justice of the peace, constable and 
school directors. 3 

1 The form of borough government herein described is the form re- 
quired under the present State Constitution. The form of government 
in boroughs incorporated previous to the adoption of the present State 
Constitution varies in some respects from the form given. 

2 The electors petition the court for incorporation as a borough. The 
petition is referred by the judge to the grand jury. If the grand jury 
report favorably, the petition is granted and the borough incorporated. 

3 Sometimes, in newly-formed and small boroughs, the schools are 
under the jurisdiction of the school directors of the township in which 
the borough is located, but usually the borough forms an independent 
school district, and elects its own school directors. 



58 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

80. The Burgess or mayor is chosen by the electors to 
serve one term of three years, and is not eligible to the 
office for the next succeeding term. He is not a member 
of the council. It is his duty to approve and sign ordi- 
nances and resolutions passed by the council, or to veto 
those which he does not approve. Any ordinance or reso- 
lution vetoed by the burgess may be re-passed over his 
veto by a two-thirds vote of all the members of the coun- 
cil. The burgess is ex-officio a justice of the peace. 1 

81. The Council. — The members of the council are 
chosen by the electors, usually to serve for three years, two 
or more being chosen each year. 2 They elect one of their own 
number to serve as president. It is the duty of the council to 
take such action and enact such laws and ordinances as will 
promote the general welfare of the people of the borough. 
All the public interests of the people of the borough are 
under its control. The nature and the importance of these 
interests increase with the increase of the population of the 
borough. The laws which the council makes must not con- 
flict with the laws of the State or of the United States. In 
the larger boroughs the subjects considered by the council 
are highways, crossings, care of the poor, public health, 
water-supply, lighting the borough, police service, suits at 
law to which the borough is a party, and all other mat- 
ters of interest to the people of the borough. The rate of 
taxation in the borough is fixed by the council, and the 
borough expenses are under its control ; it examines all 
bills, and, if correct, makes orders on the treasurer for 
payment of the same. The council is empowered to 
borrow money for borough purposes, subject to the limi- 
tations prescribed by the State Constitution. 3 It appoints 

1 For his duties as a justice of the peace, see Tf 71, page 51. 

2 In boroughs that are divided into wards, each ward elects at least 
one and not more than three members of council. In boroughs not 
divided into wards, the council consists of seven members. 

3 See Art. IX. Sect. 8. 



THE BOROUGH. 59 

a clerk or secretary, who keeps a record of all the transac- 
tions of the council, and certifies to and makes public the 
ordinances and resolutions which it enacts. 

82. The Treasurer is chosen by the council to serve for 
one year. He is the keeper of the borough's money ; the 
taxes collected for the use of the borough are paid to him ; 
he receives the money from the tax-collector and receipts 
for it ; he receives all fines, license money and penalties ; 
he pays out the money of the borough on the order of the 
council, duly presented in writing. He gives a bond for 
the faithful performance of his duties. 

82a. The Borough Board of Health is appointed by 
the burgess, with the consent of the council; it consists 
of five persons, one of whom must be a physician ; one 
member is appointed annually to serve for five years. The 
board is empowered to make regulations for the protection 
and preservation of the public health ; to enforce measures 
necessary to prevent the spread of contagious and infec- 
tious diseases; and to construct temporary hospitals if 
necessary. The board is required to keep a record of mar- 
riages, births and deaths that occur in the borough and to 
make an annual report of their transactions to the council. 

82"b. The Borough Solicitor. — In many boroughs a 
solicitor is chosen by the council. He advises the bor- 
ough officers on all matters of law connected with their 
duties, and acts as attorney for the borough in all matters 
in which its legal interests are affected. 1 

1 The duties of the other officers of the borough are the same as those 
of similar officers in the township. 



60 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



The Oity. 

83. The City is a centralization of humanity and hu- 
man interests. The government of a large city is more 
complex than the government of the State in which it is 
located. It is a corporation, and carries on its govern- 
ment under a charter granted by the State. The charter 
names the city, erects it into a political community and 
enumerates its privileges. The General Assembly may 
from time to time make such changes in the manner of 
conducting the government of a city as may be needed. 

84. City Institutions. — For the welfare of its people 
a city is compelled to create charitable institutions, re- 
formatory institutions, institutions for the punishment 
of offenders and educational institutions. The mainten- 
ance of these institutions and of public parks, the care 
of the streets, the provision for protecting the public 
health, the care of the poor, the erection of water-works, 
gas-works, electric-light works and public buildings, the 
equipment of a fire department, of a telegraph depart- 
ment, of an adequate police force for the protection of 
life and property, and the necessity for numerous officers 
and employes to carry on the government of the city, 
cause the taxes in the city to be much greater than in the 
rural districts. 

85. Classification of Cities. 1 — The cities in this State 
have been classified by the General Assembly as follows : 

First Class, having a population of 1,000,000 or more. 
Second Class, " " " " 100,000 to 1,000,000. 

Third Class, " " " " 10,000 to 100,000. 

1 The object of this classification is to secure compliance with that 
provision of the Constitution which prohibits special legislation. (See 
Art. III. Sect. 7.) Under this section any law enacted by the General 
Assembly in reference to a city would be applicable to every city in the 
State. A law needed in a large city might be useless, and even harmful, 



THE CITY. 61 

86. Wards and Precincts or Voting Divisions.— For 
convenience in its organization and government the city 
is divided into wards, and usually the wards are subdivided 
into precincts or voting divisions. Wards differ in size 
and population in the same city. 

87. The City of Philadelphia is the only city of the 
first class in the State. It is divided into thirty-seven 
wards, each of which is subdivided into precincts or vot- 
ing divisions. In its government the legislative power is 
vested in the councils ; the executive power is vested in the 
mayor, the director of the department of public safety, the 
director of the department of public works, the receiver 
of taxes, the city treasurer, the city controller, the city 
solicitor, the president of the board of education, the pres- 
ident of the department of charities and correction and the 
president of the sinking fund commission. 1 

88. The Councils of the city comprise tw T o bodies, the 
Select Council and the Common Council. The Select Coun- 
cil is composed of one member from each ward in the city, 
chosen by the electors therein to serve for three years. The 
Common Council is composed of one member for every two 
thousand electors in each ward, chosen by the electors there- 
in to serve for two years. Each body elects one of its own 
members to serve as president, and the president of each 

in a smaller city. By classifying the cities laws may be enacted suita- 
ble to the wants of any particular class. It has been thought by some 
that the law classifying cities was a violation of Art. III. Sect. 7 of the 
State Constitution, but the supreme court of the State has decided that 
the law is constitutional. 

1 All officers, clerks and employes in the different departments, except 
the assistants of the city solicitor, the officers and employes of the board 
of education, laborers and professional experts, are appointed by the di- 
rector or head thereof, after a competitive examination. If any person 
personally solicits an appointment in favor of a candidate, it disqualifies 
such candidate from competing at any examination or for any appoint- 
ment for one year thereafter, unless it can be shown that the solicitation 
was done with an intent to injure the candidate. 



62 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

body appoints the committees for that body. The powers of 
the two bodies are mainly the same, except that the Com- 
mon Council has the exclusive right to originate bills pro- 
viding for taxation and raising money, while the Select 
Council has the exclusive right to confirm appointments 
made by the mayor and to try impeachments. All the laws 
necessary for the local government of the city are made by 
the councils. The laws they make are called ordinances, 
and must not conflict with the laws of the State or of the 
United States. The councils determine the amount of 
money necessary for the support of the different depart- 
ments of the city government from estimates made by the 
departments, they fix the rate of taxation, and they ap- 
portion to each department the amount of money needed 
to defray its expenses. The councils are empowered to 
borrow money for city purposes, subject to the limitations 
prescribed by the State Constitution. Members of councils 
are not paid for their services. 

89. The Mayor is the chief executive officer of the city, 
and is responsible for its good order and efficient govern- 
ment. He is chosen by the electors to serve for four years, 
and is not eligible for the next succeeding term. All ordi- 
nances and resolutions passed by the councils require his 
approval and signature; should he disapprove and veto any 
ordinance or resolution, it must be re-passed by a vote of two- 
thirds of all the members of councils before it can become 
a law. It is his duty to see that the ordinances of the city 
and the laws of the State, so far as they are applicable to the 
city, are faithfully executed ; to communicate to councils 
at least once a year a statement of the finances and condi- 
tion of the city's affairs : to recommend such measures as 
he shall deem expedient for the protection and improve- 
ment of the government and finances of the city; to call 
special meetings of councils, or of either of them, when nec- 
essary ; and to call together the heads of departments at 
least once each month for consultation on the city's affairs. 



THE CITY. 63 

He appoints a number of the executive officers of the city, 
subject to the approval of the Select Council. He has 
power to remove from office any head of department or 
other officer that he appoints. He may appoint, whenever 
he may think proper, three persons to examine, without 
notice, the accounts of any officer or department, and 
the money or securities belonging to the city in the 
hands of such officer or department. He is authorized 
to exercise the judicial power of a magistrate. 1 

90. The Director of the Department of Public Safety- 
is appointed by the mayor, with the approval of the Select 
Council. This department has the management and su- 
pervision of all matters relating to the public health, of 
the fire and police force, fire-alarm telegraph, inspection 
of buildings, boilers and markets and the food sold therein. 2 

1 As the mayor's time is fully occupied with other and more import- 
ant duties, he selects two of the magistrates chosen by the electors, and 
these magistrates in turn hold a magistrate's court every day at the city 
hall, for the purpose of hearing and disposing of such criminal cases, 
misdemeanors and violations of the law as may be brought before them. 
(See note 3, page 65.) 

2 The Board of Health is an organization connected with the de- 
partment of public safety. The board consists of the mayor ex-officio, 
the director of the department of public safety, who is ex-officio a mem- 
ber and president of the board, and five citizens appointed by the 
mayor with the consent of the select council, to serve for three years. 
The board elects a president pro tempore, who acts when the director of 
public safety is absent. It is the duty of the board to enforce such 
measures as will prevent malignant, infectious and contagious diseases 
from becoming epidemic ; to suggest and recommend the best methods 
of preventing such diseases, and the best course to be pursued should 
they make their appearance ; to protect and preserve the public health 
by abating nuisances prejudicial to health, by carefully inspecting the 
drainage of the houses in the city, and by the use of such other hygienic 
and sanitary measures as may be necessary ; and to prevent disease 
being brought into the city from other places, by carefully exam- 
ining all vessels, their passengers and crews, arriving at this port. A 
record is kept by the board of all marriages, births and deaths that oc- 



Gi THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

91 . The Director of the Department of Public Works 

is appointed by the mayor, with the approval of the Select 
Council. This department has the management and su- 
pervision of the water-works and gas-works, the grading, 
paving, repairing and lighting of the streets ; the construc- 
tion, care and repair of public buildings, 1 bridges, wharves 
and public squares ; and it has charge of the surveys, sewer- 
age, drainage and of the city ice-boats. 2 

92. The Receiver of Taxes is chosen by the electors to 
serve for three years. He receives from the citizens all 
taxes and money due the city from loans, licenses, rents 
and other sources, and pays the same to the city treasurer. 

93. The President of the Board of Education is elected 
by the board of education, of which he must be a member. 

94. The President of the Department of Charities 
and Correction and a board of four directors are ap- 
pointed by the mayor to serve for five years. They have 
the care and management of the almshouse, the hospital 
and the house of correction. 

95. The Sinking 1 Fund Commission is composed of 
the mayor, the controller and one other person chosen by 
the councils in joint session. It is the duty of the com- 
mission to see that the requirements of the law relative to 
the sinking fund are complied with. The sinking fund 

cur in the city. The most important administrative officers of the board 
are the health officer, the port physician, the chief clerk, the medical in- 
spector, the chief inspector of nuisances, the chief inspector of house 
drainage, the chief disinfector, the inspector of milk, the quarantine 
master, and the Lazaretto physician, all of whom, together with a large 
number of inspectors, assistants and clerks necessary to carry on the 
work of the board, are appointed by the director of public safety, ex- 
cepting the health officer, who is appointed by the governor of the 
State. 

1 The construction of the city hall is under the control of a commis- 
sion authorized by the General Assembly. 

2 The city ice-boats are used to keep the channel of the Delaware River 
free from ice that would otherwise obstruct the navigation of the river. 



THE CITY. 65 

was established to provide the means of paying and retir- 
ing, as they mature and become payable, the bonds issued 
for money borrowed by the city. 1 

96. The Other Officers of the City are the city treas- 
urer, 2 the city controller or auditor, and the city solicitor, 
each of whom is chosen by the electors to serve for three 
years. Their duties are like those of similar officers in the 
county and borough. 

97. The Courts of the city of Philadelphia are the 
courts of the judicial district in which the city is located, 
in addition to which it has magistrates' courts for hearing 
and disposing of criminal cases, misdemeanors and viola- 
tions of law, and civil cases in which the value in dispute 
is not over one hundred dollars. 3 

98. Public Schools. — The interests of the public 
schools of Philadelphia are entrusted to a board of edu- 
cation consisting of one member from each ward, ap- 
pointed by the judges of the courts. The board elects 
one of its own members as president; it also elects a 
superintendent and six assistant superintendents to su- 
perintend the work of instruction in the schools, a secre- 

1 See Art. XV. Sect. 3. 

2 The city treasurer must have been a resident of the city for seven 
years prior to his election, unless he has been absent on business of the 
State or of the United States. He is not eligible for election for two 
consecutive terms. The methods of assessing taxes, revising the valu- 
ations made by the assessors, collecting the taxes and water-rents and 
providing for other matters required in the government of a large body 
of people are necessarily more complex than in the government of 
smaller bodies, but the general principle is the same. 

3 One magistrate for each thirty thousand citizens is chosen by the 
electors to serve for five years. In each ward a constable is chosen 
by the electors therein for each five thousand citizens in the ward. 
Criminal cases are disposed of in magistrates' courts in the same man- 
ner as in the court of the justice of the peace (see f 71, page 51), except 
that some offenders, instead of being sent to jail, are sent to the " House 
of Correction," where they are compelled to perform daily labor. For 
the magistrate's jurisdiction in civil cases, see note page 37. 

5 



66 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

tary, an assistant secretary and seven clerks to attend to the 
clerical work of the department, and a superintendent of 
buildings with five assistants, who superintend the erec- 
tion and repair of school-buildings. The board regulates 
the course of study, selects the text-books, provides for 
the examination of teachers and has general supervision 
of the schools. Each ward elects a local or ward board 
of school directors, who elect the teachers and who attend 
to the local interests of the schools in their respective 
wards. The schools are maintained by appropriations 
made by the councils. The public-school system of Phil- 
adelphia is entirely distinct from that of the rest of the 
State. 

99. Cities of the Second and Third Class. 1 — In all 
important features the government of cities of the second 
and third class is the same as in a city of the first class. 
The differences that exist are mainly in matters of detail, 
in a smaller number of assistants and employes in the 
offices, departments and bureaus in the smaller cities, and 
in a less minute division and assignment of their duties. 
The Wallace law, under which the cities of Pittsburgh 
and Allegheny are governed, and the Bullitt law, under 
the provisions of which the city of Philadelphia carries 
on its government, are alike in spirit and in purpose. 
The enactment of these laws by the General Assembly 
indicates the demand of the people for a better and purer 
government, and the willingness of our representatives 
to comply with that demand. The government of our 
large cities to-day is a decided improvement over that of 
the past. 

1 Pittsburgh and Allegheny are the only cities of the second class in 
the State. For list of cities whose population entitles them to be 
classified as cities of the third class — i. e. having a population between 
10,000 and 100,000— see page 128. 



CHAPTER III. 

HOW THE PEOPLE CHOOSE THEIR OFFICERS. 

100. Political Parties form the most important agency 
in the government of the people. It is well for the State 
and for the nation that the people form different political 
parties. Errors in the administration of the government 
are less likely to occur, and are more quickly remedied, 
when one party keeps a close watch upon the policy and 
actions of its opponents. 

101. Party Committees. — The interests of political 
parties are looked after by committees. Each prominent 
party has a national, a State, a county, a city, and fre- 
quently a township committee. 

102. The Primary or Delegate Election is held for 
the purpose of choosing delegates to the conventions 
which nominate candidates for office. At the primary 
election only those are allowed to vote who belong to the 
party in whose interest the primary election is held. 

In the Crawford county system of nominating candi- 
dates, so called because it originated in that county, each 
elector at the primary election votes directly for the per- 
sons whom he desires to become candidates for the differ- 
ent offices, and those persons receiving the greatest number 
of votes become the candidates. 

103. Conventions. — Candidates for office are usually 
nominated in conventions. Each party holds its own 
conventions, which are composed of delegates belonging 
to the party in whose interest the conventions are held. 1 

1 Eead Chapter V., page 44, Thorpe's Course in Civil Government. 

67 



68 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

104. Nominations. — Candidates for offices in the town- 
ships and the smaller boroughs are nominated either in 
party conventions of delegates chosen by the electors at 
the primary election, or in a caucus or informal meeting 
of the leading members of the party. 

Candidates for offices in the cities, in the larger boroughs 
and in the counties are nominated in conventions of dele- 
gates chosen by the electors at the primary elections in the 
various voting divisions of the city, borough or county. 
The delegates to the county convention are frequently — 
in some counties always — instructed to vote for certain 
candidates for nomination. 

Candidates for State offices are nominated in State con- 
ventions * composed of delegates from each county elected 
by the county convention. The State convention prepares 
an address called theplatform of the party, which sets forth its 
principles and its policy and what it seeks to accomplish ; 
it nominates candidates for presidential electors and it 
elects delegates to the national convention. 2 

Candidates for judges are nominated in conventions held 
in the judicial districts ; candidates for the House of Repre- 
sentatives of the General Assembly are nominated in con- 

1 The State Committee. — The place and time for the State con- 
vention to meet is named by the State committee, which is composed of 
one member from each county in the State, appointed by the preceding 
State convention. The member of the committee for each county is 
suggested by the delegates in the convention from that county. The 
chairman of the State committee is selected either by the convention or 
by the candidates that the convention nominates. The campaign, which 
is the term applied to the time, means and efforts used to elect the can- 
didates, is conducted chiefly by the chairman of the State committee, 
with the advice and assistance of the candidates. 

2 Sixty-four delegates, a number equal to twice the number of the 
State's representation in both houses of Congress, are elected by the 
State convention to represent the party in the State in the national con- 
vention which nominates candidates for the office of President and of 
Vice-President of the United States. 



HOW THE PEOPLE CHOOSE THEIR OFFICERS. 69 

ventions in the representative districts ; candidates for the 
State Senate are nominated in conventions in the senatorial 
districts ; candidates for the national House of Representa- 
tives are nominated in conventions in the congressional 
districts. 

Each political party in the various districts holds a con- 
vention, composed of delegates from each voting division 
in the district, chosen by electors belonging to the party 
holding the convention. When several counties are united 
to form a judicial district, a senatorial district or a con- 
gressional district, the delegates from each county are usu- 
ally chosen in a convention held in that county, and are 
usually instructed to vote for some particular candidate. 2 

105. Nomination Papers. — Nominations of candidates 
for any office may also be made by nomination papers 
signed by qualified electors of the district or of the voting 
division for which the nomination is made. If the nom- 
ination is for any State office, such as governor or State 

2 Members of the national House of Kepresentatives are chosen by 
the electors in the congressional districts ; the electors in each district 
choose the congressman for that district. 

The Congressman-at-Large.— The representation of the State 
in the national House of Representatives is based on its population. 
By the census of 1880 this State was entitled to twenty-eight represent- 
atives ; by the census of 1890 it is entitled to thirty representatives. 
The General Assembly neglected to re-district the State immediately 
after the census of 1890, so we have but twenty-eight districts, but are 
entitled to thirty representatives. Under these circumstances two rep- 
resentatives are chosen by the electors-at-large — that is. voted for by the 
electors in all of the congressional districts. The congressman so 
chosen is called a congressman-at-large. As soon as the General As- 
sembly re-districts the State the congressmen-at-large will be assigned 
to districts and the distinction will disappear. 

The two senators who represent the State in the United States Senate 
are chosen by the General Assembly. 

The President and Vice-President of the United States are chosen by 
the Electoral College, composed of presidential electors chosen by electors. 
Read Chapter X., page 93, Thorpe's Course in Civil Government. 



70 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

treasurer, the number of electors signing the nomination 
papers must be at least one-half of one per cent, of the 
largest vote cast for any State officer elected at the pre- 
ceding State election. In all other nominations the num- 
ber signing the nomination papers must be at least two 
per cent, of the largest vote for any officer elected at the 
preceding election in the district or in the voting division 
for which the nomination papers are made. 

106. Making the Ticket. — The names of all the can- 
didates nominated in the conventions for State offices, 
State senators, judges of the courts, members of the na- 
tional House of Representatives and presidential electors, 
certified to by the president and secretaries of the conven- 
tions ; and the names of all candidates nominated for the 
same offices by nomination papers, certified to by the 
affidavit of at least five of the signers to the papers, are 
sent to the secretary of the Commonwealth, who makes a 
correct list of all the candidates nominated for State of- 
fices and for presidential electors, and sends it to the county 
commissioners and to the sheriff of each county in the 
State; he also makes correct lists of all the candidates 
nominated for State senators, for members of the national 
House of Representatives and for judges of the courts, and 
sends them to the county commissioners and to the sheriffs 
of the counties located in the districts for which the nom- 
inations have been made. 

The names of all candidates nominated for members of 
the House of Representatives of the General Assembly and 
for city, county, borough and township offices, certified to by 
the president and secretaries of the conventions in which 
they were nominated, and the names of all candidates 
nominated for the same offices by nomination papers 
or in caucuses or delegate elections held under the rules 
of any political party, and properly certified, are sent 
directly to the county commissioners, who from these 
lists prepare an exact official ticket and provide the 



HOW THE PEOPLE CHOOSE THEIR OFFICERS. 71 

ballots needed in the county for use at the election. The 
sheriff issues a proclamation stating what offices are to 
be filled and the names of the candidates. 

107. Election Officers. — At the annual spring election 
the electors in each voting division of the State choose 
one judge and two inspectors of elections. As but one 
judge is chosen, he is necessarily elected by the majority 
party, but, as no elector may vote for more than one in- 
spector, each of the two leading parties chooses one inspec- 
tor ; each inspector appoints one clerk : these clerks perform 
the clerical work necessary in conducting the election. 

108. The Election. — In Pennsylvania all elections are 
conducted under the u Baker ballot law," which is a mod- 
ification of the Australian ballot system. The general 
election, usually called the fall election, at which national, 
State and county officers are chosen, is held on the Tues- 
day next after the first Monday in November ; the spring 
election, at which city, borough and township officers are 
chosen, is held on the third Tuesday in February. 

109. Casting the Ballots. — The room in which the 
election is held is divided into two parts by a railing. In 
one part of the room are located the election officers with 
the ballot-box ; in the other part are arranged a number 
of closets called voting-booths or stalls. When an elector 
enters the room he gives his name and address to the 
officers ; if his name is found on the assessor's list, he is 
admitted within the railing and handed an official ballot. 
The ballot contains the names of all the candidates of the 
different parties in separate columns ; the elector retires to 
a voting-booth and in private prepares his ballot. If he 
desires to vote what is called " a straight ticket " — that is, 
to vote for every candidate of his political party — he 
marks a cross (X) within a circle which is printed above 
the column containing the names of all the candidates of 
his party. If he desires to vote for but a part of the 
ticket, he makes a cross (X) opposite the names of the 



72 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

candidates for whom he wishes to vote, or he may write 
in blank spaces left for the purpose the names of candi- 
dates of his own choice. He must fold his ballot so that 
no one can see how he has marked it, give it to the elec- 
tion officer having charge of the ballot-box, who numbers 
it and fastens down securely with adhesive paste the part 
marked with the number, so that it cannot be seen without 
cutting the ballot open, and deposits it in the ballot-box. 
The object of all this detail is to secure secrecy and to 
prevent fraud in conducting the election. 1 

110. The Result. — The ballots are received from seven 
o'clock in the morning until seven o'clock in the evening. 
As soon as the election is over the officers count the ballots 
for each candidate and prepare a written report or return 
of the same. This return is taken to the prothonotary of 
the courts when an election is held for national, State or 
county officers, and to the clerk of the court of quarter 
sessions when city, borough or township officers have 
been chosen. The prothonotary places the return before 
the judge of the court of common pleas, under whose 
supervision the return is examined, and, if found correct, 
he certifies to it and the prothonotary then sends it to the 
secretary of the Commonwealth at Harrisburg, by whom 
it is recorded, and, excepting in a few instances, commis- 
sions are issued by the governor to the successful candi- 
dates. The candidates who were elected to the city, 
borough and township offices receive their certificates of 
election from the clerk of the court of quarter sessions or 
from the election officers in the township, excepting the 
justice of the peace, whose election is certified to the gov- 
ernor, from whom the justice of the peace receives his 
commission. 2 

1 Read note page 215, Thorpe's Course in Civil Government 

2 Plurality and Majority Votes. — When there are more than 
two candidates for the same office, the successful candidate is usually 
elected, not by a majority, but by a plurality, vote. The candidate 



HOW THE PEOPLE CHOOSE THEIR OFFICERS. 73 

111. The Officer-Elect. — The candidate who has been 
declared elected is the officer-elect, but he has not yet 
become an officer. The Constitution requires that every 
person elected to be a senator, a representative, a State, 
a county or a judicial officer, shall, before entering on the 
duties of the office to which he was elected, take and 
subscribe the oath of office, in which he swears or affirms 
that he will support, obey and defend the Constitution 
of the United States and the Constitution of the Common- 
wealth of Pennsylvania, and that he will discharge the 
duties of his office with fidelity. 1 The General Assembly 
has by law provided that city, borough and township 
officers, also, shall take the oath of office. When the time 
has expired for which his predecessor was elected, and 
after the officer-elect has taken the oath, he assumes the 
duties of the office to which he was elected. 

receives a plurality vote when he receives more votes than any other 
candidate for the same office; he receives a majority vote when he 
receives more than half the whole number of votes cast for any office. 
1 See Art. VII. 



CHAPTER IV. 

TO THE PEOPLE WE COME SOONER OR LATER. 

" To the people we come sooner or later; it is upon 
their wisdom and self -restraint that the stability of 
the most cunningly devised scheme of government 
will in the last resort depend."— Bryce. 

112. The government of Pennsylvania, in State, county, 
city, borough and township, is the familiar tripartite form 
of government for which our ancestors so long contended 
m England and for which our forefathers made such costly 
sacrifices during the Revolutionary war. 

113. The people, through their representatives whom 
they elect, make the laws, which are interpreted by judges 
whom the people choose, and which are executed by exec- 
utive officers of their choice. So closely is the individual 
citizen connected with the government that any one of us, 
old or young, who may think of some plan by which the 
welfare of the people would be promoted, may form our 
ideas into a bill and send it to our representatives in the 
General Assembly or in the Federal Congress, and it may 
be enacted into a law of the land. 

114. The Constitution and laws of the State are but 
the expression of the will of the people as to the method 
of securing the best form of civil government, which im- 
plies the protection of all the rights and interests of the 
people, their lives, their property, their safety, their hap- 
piness and their prosperity. 

The numerous officers chosen by the people, in State, 
county, city, borough and township, to administer the 

74 



TO THE PEOPLE WE COME SOONER OB LATER. 75 

laws and transact the public business, are responsible to 
the people for the care of the public interests entrusted to 
them ; they are the public servants of the people ; and 
while the term " public servants " may be to the thought- 
less but a meaningless expression, to the more thoughtful 
it has all the significance intended by the Constitution 
when it uses the words "chosen to serve." 

115. The government, in all of its departments, is 
" of the people, by the people, for the people." To the 
people w r e come sooner or later; on them, on the indi- 
vidual citizen, rest the stability and the security of the 
State. As we each of us realize our privileges, and with 
fidelity and loyalty live up to our responsibilities in the 
home, in the school, in township, in borough, in city, in 
State and in the nation, so shall we, like the favored 
people of old, " be blessed among the nations " — so shall 
we worthily bear on the flag of the State, which is the 
emblem of its authority, and on the coat of arms of the 
State, which is the evidence of that authority, the ennobling 
motto written there by our fathers : " Virtue, Liberty and 
Independence" — so shall be answered the prayer of the 
great founder of our State : u God bless the Common- 
wealth of Pennsvlvania." 



CONSTITUTION 

OF THE 

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



oS**cx*- 



The Preamble. 

We, the People of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 
grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of civil and 
religious liberty, and humbly invoking His guidance, do 
ordain and establish this Constitution. 

Article I. 

DECLARATION OF RIGHTS. 

That the general, great, and essential principles of lib- 
erty and free government may be recognized and unalter- 
ably established, We declare that 

Section 1. All men are born equally free and independ- 
ent, and have certain inherent and indefeasible rights, 
among which are those of enjoying and defending life and 
liberty, of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property 
and reputation, and of pursuing their own happiness. 

Section 2. All power is inherent in the people, and all 
free governments are founded on their authority and in- 
stituted for their peace, safety, and happiness. F.or the 
advancement of these ends, they have, at all times, an 
inalienable and indefeasible right to alter, reform, or 
abolish their government, in such manner as they may 
think proper. 

76 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 77 

Section 3. All men have a natural and indefeasible 
right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates 
of their own consciences ; no man can, of right, be com- 
pelled to attend, erect, or support any place of worship, 
or to maintain any ministry, against his consent ; no 
human authority can, in any case whatever, control or 
interfere with the rights of conscience ; and no preference 
shall ever be given, by law, to any religious establishments 
or modes of worship. 

Section 4. No person who acknowledges the being of a 
God, and a future state of rewards and punishments, shall, 
on account of his religious sentiments, be disqualified to 
hold any office, or place of trust or profit, under this 
Commonwealth. 

Section 5. Elections shall be free and equal; and no 
power, civil or military, shall, at any time, interfere to 
prevent the free exercise of the right of suffrage. 

Section 6. Trial by jury shall be as heretofore, and the 
right thereof remain inviolate. 

Section 7. The printing press shall be free to every per- 
son who may undertake to examine the proceedings of the 
Legislature, or any branch of government, and no law 
shall ever be made to restrain the right thereof. The free 
communication of thoughts and opinions is one of the 
invaluable rights of man ; and every citizen may freely 
speak, write, and print on any subject, being responsible 
for the abuse of that liberty. No conviction shall be had, 
in any prosecution for the publication of papers relating 
to the official conduct of officers, or men in public capac- 
ity, or to any other matter proper for public investigation 
or information, where the fact that such publication was 
not maliciously or negligently made, shall be established 
to the satisfaction of the jury ; and in all indictments for 
libels, the jury shall have the right to determine the law 
and the facts, under the direction of the Court, as in other 
cases. 



78 CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Section 8. The people shall be secure in their persons, 
houses, papers, and possessions, from unreasonable searches 
and seizures ; and no warrant to search any place, or to 
seize any person or things, shall issue, without describing 
them as nearly as may be, nor without probable cause, 
supported by oath or affirmation, subscribed to by the 
affiant. 

Section 9. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused 
hath a right to be heard by himself and his counsel, to 
demand the nature and cause of the accusation against 
him, to meet the witnesses face to face, to have compul- 
sory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor ; and in 
prosecutions by indictment or information, a speedy pub- 
lic trial, by an impartial jury of the vicinage ; he cannot 
be compelled to give evidence against himself, nor can he 
be deprived of his life, liberty, or property, unless by the 
judgment of his peers, or the law of the land. 

Section 10. No person shall, for any indictable offence, 
be proceeded against criminally, by information, except 
in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the 
militia, when in actual service, in time of war or public 
danger ; or, by leave of the Court, for oppression or mis- 
demeanor in office. No person shall, for the same offence, 
be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb, nor shall private 
property be taken or applied to public use, without au- 
thority of law, and without just compensation being first 
made or secured. 

Section 11. All courts shall be open; and every man, 
for an injury done him in his lands, goods, person, or rep- 
utation, shall have remedy by due course of law, and 
right and justice administered, without sale, denial, or 
delay. Suits may be brought against the Commonwealth, 
in such manner, in such courts, and in such cases, as the 
Legislature may by law direct. 

Section 12. No power of suspending laws shall be exer- 
cised, unless by the Legislature, or by its authority. 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 79 

Section 13. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor 
excessive fines imposed, nor cruel punishments inflicted. 

Section 14. All prisoners shall be bailable by sufficient 
sureties, unless for capital offences, when the proof is evi- 
dent, or presumption great ; and the privilege of the writ 
of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when, in 
case of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may re- 
quire it. 

Section 15. No commission of Oyer and Terminer or 
Jail Delivery shall be issued. 

Section 16. The person of a debtor, where there is not 
strong presumption of fraud, shall not be continued in 
prison, after delivering up his estate for the benefit of his 
creditors, in such manner as shall be prescribed by law. 

Section 17. No ex post facto law, nor any law impairing 
the obligation of contracts, or making irrevocable any grant 
of special privileges or immunities, shall be passed. 

Section 18. No person shall be attainted of treason or 
felony by the Legislature. 

Section 19. No attainder shall work corruption of 
blood, nor, except during the life of the offender, forfeiture 
of estate to the Commonwealth. The estate of such per- 
sons as shall destroy their own lives shall descend or vest 
as in cases of natural death ; and if any person shall be 
killed by casualty, there shall be no forfeiture by reason 
thereof. 

Section 20. The citizens have a right, in a peaceable 
manner, to assemble together for their common good, and 
to apply to those invested with the powers of government, 
for redress of grievances, or other proper purposes, by pe- 
tition, address, or remonstrance. 

Section 21. The right of the citizens to bear arms in 
defence of themselves and the State, shall not be ques- 
tioned. 

Section 22. No standing army shall, in time of peace, 
be kept up, without the consent of the Legislature ; and 



80 CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

the military shall in all cases, and at all times, be in strict 
subordination to the civil power. 

Section 23. No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quar- 
tered in any house, without the consent of the owner; 
nor, in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by 
law. 

Section 24. The Legislature shall not grant any title of 
nobility or hereditary distinction ; nor create any office, 
the appointment to which shall be for a longer term than 
during good behavior. 

Section 25. Emigration from the State shall not be 
prohibited. 

Section 26. To guard against transgressions of the high 
powers which we have delegated, we declare, that every- 
thing in this article is excepted out of the general powers 
of government, and shall for ever remain inviolate. 

Article II. 

THE LEGISLATURE. 

Section 1. The legislative power of this Common- 
wealth shall be vested in a General Assembly, which shall 
consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives. 

Section 2. Members of the General Assembly shall be 
chosen at the general election, every second year. Their 
term of service shall begin on the first day of December 
next after their election. Whenever a vacancy shall occur 
in either House, the presiding officer thereof shall issue a 
writ of election, to fill such vacancy for the remainder of 
the term. 

Section 3. Senators shall be elected for the term of four 
years, and Representatives for the term of two years. 

Section 4. The General Assembly shall meet at twelve 
o'clock, noon, on the first Tuesday of January, every 
second year, and at other times when convened by the 
Governor, but shall hold no adjourned annual session 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 81 

after the year 1878. In case of a vacancy in the office of 
United States Senator from this Commonwealth, in a recess 
between sessions, the Governor shall convene the two 
Houses by proclamation, on notice, not exceeding sixty 
days, to fill the same. 

Section 5. Senators shall be at least twenty-five years 
of age, and Representatives twenty-one years of age. 
They shall have been citizens and inhabitants of the State 
four years, and inhabitants of their respective districts 
one year next before their election (unless absent on the 
public business of the United States or of this State), and 
shall reside in their respective districts during their terms 
of service. 

Section 6. No Senator or Representative shall, during 
the time for which he shall have been elected, be appointed 
to any civil office under this Commonwealth; and no 
member of Congress, or other person holding any office - 
(except of attorney-at-law, or in the militia), under the 
United States, or this Commonwealth, shall be a member 
of either House, during his continuance in office. 

Section 7. No person hereafter convicted of embezzle- 
ment of public moneys, bribery, perjury, or other in- 
famous crime, shall be eligible to the General Assembly, 
or capable of holding any office of trust or profit in this 
Commonwealth. 

Section 8. The members of the General Assembly shall 
receive such salary and mileage, for regular and special 
sessions, as shall be fixed by law, and no other compen- 
sation whatever, whether for service upon committee or 
otherwise. No member of either House shall, during the 
term for which he may have been elected, receive any in- 
crease of salary, or mileage, under any law passed during 
such term. 

Section 9. The Senate shall, at the beginning and close 
of each regular session, and at such other times as may 
be necessary, elect one of its members President pro tem- 
6 



82 CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

pore, who shall perform the duties of the Lieutenant- 
Governor, in any case of absence or disability of that 
officer, and whenever the said office of Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor shall be vacant. The House of Representatives shall 
elect one of its members as Speaker. Each House shall 
choose its other officers, and shall judge of the election 
and qualifications of its members. 

Section 10. A majority of each House shall constitute a 
quorum ; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to 
day, and compel the attendance of absent members. 

Section 11. Each House shall have power to determine 
the rules of its proceedings, and punish its members, or 
other persons, for contempt or disorderly behavior in its 
presence, to enforce obedience to its process, to protect its 
members against violence, or offers of bribes or private 
solicitation, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, to 
expel a member, but not a second time, for the same 
cause ; and shall have all other powers necessary for the 
Legislature of a free State. A member expelled for cor- 
ruption shall not thereafter be eligible to either House; 
and punishment for contempt or disorderly behavior shall 
not bar an indictment for the same offence. 

Section 12. Each House shall keep a journal of its pro- 
ceedings, and, from time to time, publish the same, except 
such parts as require secrecy ; and the yeas and na}^s of 
the members on any question shall, at the desire of a,nj 
two of them, be entered on the journal. 

Section 13. The sessions of each House, and of com- 
mittees of the whole, shall be open, unless when the busi- 
ness is such as ought to be kept secret. 

Section 14. Neither House shall, without the consent 
of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any 
other place than that in which the two Houses shall be 
sitting. 

Section 15. The members of the General Assembly 
shall, in all cases, except treason, felony, violation of their 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 83 

oath of office, and breach or surety of the peace, be privi- 
leged from arrest during their attendance at the sessions 
of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning 
from the same; and for any speech or debate in either 
House, they shall not be questioned in any other place. 

Section 16. The State shall be divided into fifty Sena- 
torial districts of compact and contiguous territory, as 
nearly equal in population as may be ; and each district 
shall be entitled to elect one Senator. Each county con- 
taining one or more ratios of population, shall be entitled 
to one Senator for each ratio, and to an additional Senator 
for a surplus of population exceeding three-fifths of a 
ratio, but no county shall form a separate district, unless 
it shall contain four-fiths of a ratio, except where the ad- 
joining counties are each entitled to one or more Senators, 
when such county may be assigned a Senator on less than 
four-fifths, and exceeding one-half of a ratio ; and no 
county shall be divided, unless entitled to two or more 
Senators. No city or county shall be entitled to separate 
representation, exceeding one-sixth of the whole number 
of Senators. No ward, borough, or township shall be 
divided in the formation of a district. The Senatorial 
ratio shall be ascertained by dividing the whole popula- 
tion of the State by the number fifty. 

Section 17. The members of the House of Representa- 
tives shall be apportioned among the several counties, on 
a ratio obtained by dividing the population of the State, 
as ascertained by the most recent United States census, by 
two hundred. Every county containing less than five 
ratios shall have one Representative for every full ratio, 
and an additional Representative when the surplus exceeds 
half a ratio ; but each county shall have at least one Rep- 
resentative. Every county containing five ratios or more, 
shall have one Representative for every full ratio. Every 
city containing a population equal to a ratio, shall elect 
separately its proportion of the Representatives allotted to 



84 CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

the county in which it is located. Every city entitled to 
more than four Representatives, and every county having 
over one hundred thousand inhabitants, shall be divided 
into districts of compact and contiguous territory; each 
district to elect its proportion of Representatives according 
to its population; but no district shall elect more than 
four Representatives. 

Section 18. The General Assembly, at its first session 
after the adoption of this Constitution, and immediately 
after each United States decennial census, shall apportion 
the State into Senatorial and Representative districts, 
agreeably to the provisions of the two next preceding sec- 
tions. 

Article III. 

LEGISLATION. 

Section 1. No law shall be passed except by bill; and 
no bill shall be so altered or amended, on its passage 
through either House, as to change its original purpose. 

Section 2. No bill shall be considered unless referred to 
a committee, returned therefrom, and printed for the use 
of the members. 

Section 3. No bill, except general appropriation bills, 
shall be passed containing more than one subject, which 
shall be clearly expressed in its title. 

Section 4. Every bill shall be read at length, on three 
different days, in each house ; all amendments made 
thereto shall be printed for the use of the members, before 
the final vote is taken on the bill ; and no bill shall become 
a law unless, on its final passage, the vote be taken by 
yeas and nays, the names of the persons voting for and 
against the same be entered on the journal, and a majority 
of the members elected to each House be recorded thereon 
as voting in its favor. 

Section 5. No amendment to bills by one House shall 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA, 85 

be concurred in by the other except by the vote of a majority 
of the members elected thereto, taken by yeas and nays, 
and the names of those voting for and against recorded 
upon the journal thereof; and reports of committees of 
conference shall be adopted in either House only by the 
vote of a majority of the members elected thereto, taken 
by yeas and nays, and the names of those voting recorded 
upon the journals. 

Section 6. No law shall be revived, amended, or the 
provisions thereof extended or conferred, by reference to 
its title only, but so much thereof as is revived, amended? 
extended, or conferred shall be re-enacted and published 
at length. 

Section 7. The General Assembly shall not pass any 
local or special law authorizing the creation, extension, or 
impairing of liens ; regulating the affairs of counties, cities, 
townships, wards, boroughs, or school districts ; changing 
the names of persons or places ; changing the venue in 
civil or criminal cases ; authorizing the laying out, open- 
ing, altering, or maintaining roads, highways, streets, or 
alleys ; relating to ferries or bridges, or incorporating ferry 
or bridge companies, except for the erection of bridges 
crossing streams which form boundaries between this and 
any other State; vacating roads, town-plats, streets, or 
alleys ; relating to cemeteries, graveyards, or public 
grounds, not of the State; authorizing the adoption or 
legitimation of children ; locating or changing county 
seats; erecting new counties, or changing county lines; 
incorporating cities, towns, or villages, or changing their 
charters ; for the opening and conducting of elections, or 
fixing or changing the place of voting ; granting divorces ; 
erecting new townships or boroughs; changing township 
lines, borough limits, or school districts ; creating offices, 
or prescribing the powers and duties of officers, in coun- 
ties, cities, boroughs, townships, election, or school dis- 
tricts; changing the law of descent or succession; reg- 



86 CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

ulating the practice or jurisdiction of, or changing the rules 
of evidence in, any judicial proceeding, or inquiry before 
courts, aldermen, justices of the peace, sheriffs, commis- 
sioners, arbitrators, auditors, masters in chancery, or other 
tribunals, or providing or changing methods for the collec- 
lection of debts, or the enforcing of judgments, or pre- 
scribing the effect of judicial sales of real estate; regulating 
the fees, or extending the powers and duties of aldermen, 
justices of the peace, magistrates, or constables ; regulating 
the management of public schools, the building or repair- 
ing of school-houses, and the raising of money for such 
purposes ; fixing the rate of interest ; affecting the estates 
of minors or persons under disability, except after due 
notice to all parties in interest, to be recited in the special 
enactment; remitting fines, penalties, and forfeitures, or 
refunding moneys legally paid into the treasury ; exempt- 
ing property from taxation ; regulating labor, trade, mining 
or manufacturing; creating corporations, or amending, 
renewing, or extending the charters thereof; granting to 
any corporation, association, or individual, any special or 
exclusive privilege or immunity, or to any corporation, 
association, or individual, the right to lay down a railroad 
track; nor shall the General Assembly indirectly enact 
such special or local law, by the partial repeal of a general 
law; but laws repealing local or special acts may be 
passed ; nor shall any law be passed granting powers or 
privileges, in any case where the granting of such powers 
and privileges shall have been provided for by general law, 
nor where the courts have jurisdiction to grant the same, 
or give the relief asked for. 

Section 8. No local or special bill shall be passed, un- 
less notice of the intention to apply therefor shall have 
been published, in the locality where the matter or the 
thing to be affected may be situated, which notice shall 
be at least thirty days prior to the introduction into the 
General Assembly of such bill, and in the manner to be 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 87 

provided by law ; the evidence of such notice having been 
published, shall be exhibited in the General Assembly, 
before such act shall be passed. 

Section 9. The presiding officer of each House shall, 
in the presence of the House over which he presides, sign 
all bills and joint resolutions passed by the General As- 
sembly, after their titles have been publicly read, imme- 
diately before signing ; and the fact of signing shall be 
entered on the journal. 

Section 10. The General Assembly shall prescribe by 
law the number, duties, and compensation of the officers 
and employes of each House; and no payment shall be 
made from the State treasury, or be in any way author- 
ized, to any person, except to an acting officer or employe 
elected or appointed in pursuance of law. 

Section 11. No bill shall be passed giving any extra 
compensation to any public officer, servant, employe, agent^ 
or contractor, after services shall have been rendered or 
contract made, nor providing for the payment of any claim 
against the Commonwealth, without previous authority 
of law. 

Section 12. All stationery, printing, paper, and fuel 
used in the legislative and other departments of Govern- 
ment, shall be furnished, and the printing, binding, and 
distributing of the law T s, journals, department reports, and 
all other printing and binding, and the repairing and 
furnishing the halls and rooms used for the meetings of 
the General Assembly and its committees, shall be per- 
formed under contract, to be given to the lowest respon- 
sible bidder below such maximum price, and under such 
regulations, as shall be prescribed by law ; no member or 
officer of any department of the Government shall be, in 
any way, interested in such contracts ; and all such con- 
tracts shall be subject to the approval of the Governor 
Auditor- General, and State Treasurer. 

Section 13. No law shall extend the term of any public 



88 CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

officer, or increase or diminish his salary or emoluments, 
after his election or appointment. 

Section 14. All bills for raising revenue shall originate 
in the House of Representatives, but the Senate may pro- 
pose amendments as in other bills. 

Section 15. The general appropriation bill shall em- 
brace nothing but appropriations for the ordinary ex- 
penses of the executive, legislative, and judicial de- 
partments of the Commonwealth, interest on the public 
debt, and for public schools ; all other appropriations 
shall be made by separate bills, each embracing but one 
subject. 

Section 16. No money shall be paid out of the treasury, 
except upon appropriations made by law. and on warrant 
drawn by the proper officer in pursuance thereof. 

Section 17. No appropriation shall be made to any 
charitable or educational institution, not under the absolute 
control of the Commonwealth, other than normal schools, 
established by law, for the professional training of teachers 
for the public schools of the State, except by a vote of 
two-thirds of all the members elected to each House. 

Section 18. No appropriations, except for pensions, or 
gratuities for military services, shall be made for chari- 
table, educational, or benevolent purposes, to any person 
or community, nor to any denominational or sectarian 
institution, corporation, or association. 

Section 19. The General Assembly may make appro- 
priations of money to institutions wherein the widows of 
soldiers are supported or assisted, or the orphans of sol- 
diers are maintained and educated ; but such appropria- 
tion shall be applied exclusively to the support of such 
widows and orphans. 

Section 20. The General Assembly shall not delegate 
to any special commission, private corporation, or associa- 
tion, any power to make, supervise, or interfere with any 
municipal improvement, money, property, or effects, 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 89 

whether held in trust or otherwise, or to levy tuxes, or 
perform any municipal function whatever. 

Section 21. No act of the General Assembly shall limit 
the amount to be recovered for injuries resulting in death, 
or for injuries to persons or property ; and, in case of death 
from such injuries, the right of action shall survive, and 
the General Assembly shall prescribe for whose benefit 
such actions shall be prosecuted. No act shall prescribe 
any limitations of time within which suits may be brought 
against corporations for injuries to persons or property, or 
for other causes, different from those fixed by general 
laws regulating actions against natural persons ; and such 
acts now existing are avoided. 

Section 22. No act of the General Assembly shall au- 
thorize the investment of trust funds by executors, admin- 
istrators, guardians, or other trustees, in the bonds or stock 
of any private corporation; and such acts now existing 
are avoided, saving investments heretofore made. 

Section 23. The power to change the venue in civil and 
criminal cases shall be vested in the Courts, to be exercised 
in such manner as shall be provided by law. 

Section 24. No obligation or liability of any railroad or 
other corporation, held or owned by the Commonwealth, 
shall ever be exchanged, transferred, remitted, postponed, 
or in any way diminished, by the General Assembly ; nor 
shall such liability or obligation be released, except by 
payment thereof into the State Treasury. 

Section 25. When the General Assembly shall be con- 
vened in special session, there shall be no legislation upon 
subjects other than those designated in the proclamation 
of the Governor calling such session. 

Section 26. Every order, resolution, or vote to which 
the concurrence of both Houses may be necessary, except 
on the question of adjournment, shall be presented to the 
Governor, and before it shall take effect, be approved by 
him, or being disapproved, shall be repassed by two-thirds 



90 CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

of both Houses, according to the rules and limitations 
prescribed in case of a bill. 

Section 27. No State office shall be continued or created 
for the inspection or measuring of any merchandise, man- 
ufacture, or commodity ; but any county or municipality 
may appoint such officers, when authorized by law. 

Section 28. No law changing the location of the Capital 
of the State shall be valid, until the same shall have been 
submitted to the qualified electors of the Commonwealth, 
at a general election, and ratified and approved by them. 

Section 29. A member of the General Assembly who shall 
solicit, demand, or receive, or consent to receive, directly 
or indirectly, for himself or for another, from anj^ com- 
pany, corporation, or person, any money, office, appoint- 
ment, employment, testimonial, reward, thing of value or 
enjoyment, or of personal advantage, or promise thereof, 
for his vote or official influence, or for withholding the 
same, or with an understanding, expressed or implied, that 
his vote or official action shall be, in any way, influenced 
thereby ; or who shall solicit or demand any such money 
or other advantage, matter, or thing aforesaid, for another, 
as the consideration of his vote or official influence, or for 
withholding the same, or shall give or withhold his vote or 
influence, in consideration of the payment or promise of 
such money, advantage, matter, or thing to another ; shall 
be held guilty of bribery, within the meaning of this Con- 
stitution, and shall incur the disabilities provided thereby 
for said offence, and such additional punishment as is or 
shall be provided by law. 

Section 30. Any person who shall, directly or indirectly, 
offer, give or promise, any money or thing of value, testi- 
monial, privilege, or personal advantage, to any executive 
or judicial officer, or member of the General Assembly, to 
influence him in the performance of any of his public or 
official duties, shall be guilty of bribery, and be punished 
in such manner as shall be provided by law. 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 91 

Section 31. The offence of corrupt solicitation of mem- 
bers of the General Assembly, or of public officers of the 
State, or of any municipal division thereof, and any occu- 
pation or practice of solicitation of such members or 
officers, to influence their official action, shall be defined 
by law, and shall be punished by fine and imprisonment. 

Section 32. Any person may be compelled to testify, in 
any lawful investigation or judicial proceeding, against 
any person who may be charged with having committed 
the offence of bribery or corrupt solicitation, or practices 
of solicitation, and shall not be permitted to withhold his 
testimony, upon the ground that it may criminate himself, 
or subject him to public infamy; but such testimony shall 
not afterwards be used against him, in any judicial pro- 
ceeding, except for perjury in giving such testimony; and 
any person convicted of either of the offences aforesaid, 
shall, as part of the punishment therefor, be disqualified 
from holding any office or position of honor, trust, or profit 
in this Commonwealth. 

Section 33. A member who has a personal or private 
interest in any measure or bill proposed or pending before 
the General Assembly, shall disclose the fact to the House 
of which he is a member, and shall not vote thereon. 

Article IV. 

THE EXECUTIVE. 

Section 1. The executive department of this Common- 
wealth shall consist of a Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, 
Secretary of the Commonwealth, Attorney-General, Audi- 
tor-General, State-Treasurer, Secretary of Internal Affairs, 
and a Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

Section 2. The supreme executive power shall be vested 
in the Governor, who shall take care that the laws be faith- 
fully executed ; he shall be chosen on the day of the gen- 
eral election, by the qualified electors of the Common- 



92 CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

wealth, at the places where they shall vote for Represent- 
atives. The returns of every election for Governor shall 
be sealed up and transmitted to the seat of Government, 
directed to the President of the Senate, who shall open 
and publish them, in the presence of the members of both 
Houses of the General Assembly. The person having the 
highest number of votes shall be Governor, but if two or 
more be equal, and highest in votes, one of them shall be 
chosen Governor by the joint vote of the members of both 
Houses. Contested elections shall be determined by a 
committee, to be selected from both Houses of the Gen- 
eral Assembly, and formed and regulated in such manner 
as shall be directed by law. 

Section 3. The Governor shall hold his office during 
four years from the third Tuesday of January next ensu- 
ing his election, and shall not be eligible to the office for 
the next succeeding term. 

Section 4. A Lieutenant-Governor shall be chosen at 
the same time, in the same manner, for the same term, 
and subject to the same provisions as the Governor; he 
shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, 
unless they be equally divided. 

Section 5. No person shall be eligible to the office of 
Governor or Lieutenant-Governor, except a citizen of the 
United States, who shall have attained the age of thirty 
years, and have been seven years next preceding his elec- 
tion an inhabitant of the State, unless he shall have been 
absent on the public business of the United States, or of 
this State. 

Section 6. No member of Congress, or person holding 
any office under the United States, or this State, shall 
exercise the office of Governor or Lieutenant-Governor. 

Section 7. The Governor shall be Commander-in-Chief 
of the Army and Navy of the Commonwealth, and of the 
militia, except when they shall be called into the actual 
service of the United States. 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 93 

Section 8. He shall nominate, and, by and with the 
advice and consent of two-thirds of all the members of 
the Senate, appoint a Secretary of the Commonwealth and 
an Attorney-General, during pleasure, a Superintendent 
of Public Instruction, for four years, and such other 
officers of the Commonwealth as he is, or may be author- 
ized, by the Constitution or by law, to appoint ; he shall 
have power to fill all vacancies that may happen in offices 
to which he may appoint, during the recess of the Senate, 
by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of 
their next session ; he shall have power to fill any vacancy 
that may happen, during the recess of the Senate, in the 
office of Auditor-General, State Treasurer, Secretary of 
Internal Affairs, or Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
in a judicial office, or in any other elective office which he 
is or may be authorized to fill ; if the vacancy shall hap- 
pen during the session of the Senate, the Governor shall 
nominate to the Senate, before their final adjournment, a 
proper person to fill said vacancy ; but in any such case 
of vacancy in an elective office, a person shall be chosen 
to said office, at the next general election, unless the 
vacancy shall happen within three calendar months im- 
mediately preceding such election, in which case, the elec- 
tion for said office shall be held at the second succeeding 
general election. In acting on executive nominations, the 
Senate shall sit with open doors, and in confirming or 
rejecting the nominations of the Governor, the vote shall 
be taken by yeas and nays, and shall be entered on the 
journal. 

Section 9. He shall have power to remit fines and for- 
feitures, to grant reprieves, commutations of sentence, and 
pardons, except in cases of impeachment ; but no pardon 
shall be granted, nor sentence commuted, except upon the 
recommendation in writing of the Lieutenant-Governor, 
Secretary of the Commonwealth, Attorney-General, and 
Secretary of Internal Affairs, or any three of them, after 



94 CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

full hearing, upon due public notice, and in open session ; 
and such recommendation, with the reasons therefor, at 
length, shall be recorded and filed in the office of the 
Secretary of the Commonwealth. 

Section 10. He may require information in writing from 
the officers of the executive department upon any subject 
relating to the duties of their respective offices. 

Section 11. He shall, from time to time, give to the 
General Assembly information of the state of the Com- 
monwealth, and recommend to their consideration such 
measures as he may judge expedient. 

Section 12. He may, on extraordinary occasions, con- 
vene the General Assembly, and in case of disagreement 
between the two Houses, with respect to the time of 
adjournment, adjourn them to such time as he shall think 
proper, not exceeding four months. He shall have power 
to convene the Senate in extraordinary session, by procla- 
mation, for the transaction of executive business. 

Section 13. In case of the death, conviction, or impeach- 
ment, failure to qualify, resignation, or other disability 
of the Governor, the powers, duties, and emoluments of 
the office, for the remainder of the term, or until the dis- 
ability be removed, shall devolve upon the Lieutenant- 
Governor. 

Section 14. In case of a vacancy in the office of Lieu- 
tenant-Governor, or when the Lieutenant-Governor shall 
be impeached by the House of Representatives, or shall 
be unable to exercise the duties of his office, the powers, 
duties, and emoluments thereof, for the remainder of the 
term, or until the disability be removed, shall devolve 
upon the President pro tempore of the Senate; and the 
President pro tempore of the Senate shall, in like manner, 
become Governor, if a vacancy or disability shall occur in 
the office of Governor ; his seat as Senator shall become 
vacant, whenever he shall become Governor, and shall be 
filled by election, as any other vacancy in the Senate. 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 95 

Section 15. Every bill which shall have passed both 
Houses, shall be presented to the Governor ; if he approve, 
he shall sign it; but if he shall not approve, he shall 
return it, with his objections, to the House in which it 
shall have originated, which House shall enter the objec- 
tions at large upon their journal, and proceed to reconsider 
it. If, after such reconsideration, two-thirds of all the 
members elected to that House shall agree to pass the bill, 
it shall be sent, with the objections, to the other House, 
by which likewise it shall be reconsidered ; and if approved 
by two-thirds of all the members elected to that House, it 
shall be a law ; but in such cases, the votes of both Houses 
shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of 
the members voting for and against the bill shall be 
entered on the journals of each House, respectively. If 
any bill shall not be returned by the Governor, within ten 
days after it shall have been presented to him, the same- 
shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, 
unless the General Assembly, by their adjournment, 
prevent its return, in which case, it shall be a law, unless 
he shall file the same, with his objections, in the office of 
the Secretary of the Commonwealth, and give notice 
thereof, by public proclamation, within thirty days after 
such adjournment. 

Section 16. The Governor shall have power to disap- 
prove of any item or items of any bill making appropri- 
ations of money, embracing distinct items, and the part 
or parts of the bill approved shall be the law, and the 
item or items of appropriation disapproved shall be void, 
unless repassed according to the rules and limitations 
prescribed for the passage of other bills over the executive 
veto. 

Section 17. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court 
shall preside upon the trial of any contested election of 
Governor or Lieutenant-Governor, and shall decide ques- 
tions regarding the admissibility of evidence, and shall, 



96 CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

upon request of the committee, pronounce his opinion 
upon other questions of law involved in the trial. Gov- 
ernor and Lieutenant-Governor shall exercise the duties 
of their respective offices, until their, successors shall be 
duly qualified. 

Section 18. The Secretary of the Commonwealth shall 
keep a record of all official acts and proceedings of the 
Governor, and, when required, lay the same, with all 
papers, minutes, and vouchers relating thereto, before 
either branch of the General Assembly; and perform such 
other duties as may be enjoined upon him by law. 

Section 19. The Secretary of Internal Affairs shall exer- 
cise all the powers, and perform all the duties, of the Sur- 
veyor-General, subject to such changes as shall be made 
by law. His department shall embrace a bureau of in- 
dustrial statistics ; and he shall discharge such duties 
relating to corporations, to the charitable institutions, the 
agricultural, manufacturing, mining, mineral, timber, and 
other material or business interests of the State, as may 
be prescribed by law. He shall annually, and at such 
other times as may be required by law, make report to 
the General Assembly. 

Section 20. The Superintendent of Public Instruction 
shall exercise all the powers and perform all the duties of 
the Superintendent of Common Schools, subject to such 
changes as shall be made by law. 

Section 21. The term of the Secretary of Internal 
Affairs shall be four years ; of the Auditor-General, three 
years ; and of the State Treasurer, two years. These 
officers shall be chosen by the qualified electors of the 
State, at general elections. No person elected to the office 
of Auditor-General or State Treasurer shall be capable of 
holding the same office for two consecutive terms. 

Section 22. The present great seal of Pennsylvania 
shall be the seal of the State. All commissions shall be 
in the name and by authority of the Commonwealth of 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 97 

Pennsylvania, and be sealed with the State seal, and signed 
by the Governor. 

Article V. 

THE JUDICIARY. 

Section 1. The judicial power of this Commonwealth 
shall be vested in a Supreme Court, in Courts of Common 
Pleas, Courts of Oyer and Terminer and General Jail 
Delivery, Courts of Quarter Sessions of the Peace, Or- 
phans' Courts, Magistrates' Courts, and in such other 
Courts as the General Assembly may from time to time 
establish. 

Section 2. The Supreme Court shall consist of seven 
judges, who shall be elected by the qualified electors of 
the State at large. They shall hold their offices for the 
term of twenty-one years, if they so long behave them- 
selves w T ell, but shall not be again eligible. The judge 
whose commission shall first expire, shall be Chief Jus- 
tice, and, thereafter, each judge whose commission shall 
first expire, shall in turn be Chief Justice. 

Section 3. The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court shall 
extend over the State, and the judges thereof shall, by 
virtue of their offices, be justices of Oyer and Terminer 
and General Jail Delivery in the several counties : they 
shall have original jurisdiction in cases of injunction 
where a corporation is a party defendant, of habeas corpus, 
of mandamus to Courts of inferior jurisdiction, and of quo 
warranto as to all officers of the Commonwealth whose 
jurisdiction extends over the State, but shall not exercise 
any other original jurisdiction ; they shall have appellate 
jurisdiction, by appeal, certiorari, or writ of error, in all 
cases, as is now or may hereafter be provided by law. 

Section 4. Until otherwise directed by law, the Courts 
of Common Pleas shall continue as at present established, 
except as herein changed ; not more than four counties 

7 



98 CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

shall, at any time, be included in one judicial district 
organized for said Courts. 

Section 5. Whenever a county shall contain forty thou- 
sand inhabitants, it shall constitute a separate judicial 
district, and shall elect one judge learned in the law ; and 
the General Assembly shall provide for additional judges, 
as the business of the said districts may require. Counties 
containing a population less than is sufficient to constitute 
separate districts, shall be formed into convenient single 
districts, or, if necessary, may be attached to contiguous 
districts, as the General Assembly may provide. The 
office of associate judge, not learned in the law, is abol- 
ished, in counties forming separate districts ; but the sev- 
eral associate judges in office when this Constitution shall 
be adopted, shall serve for their unexpired terms. 

Section 6. In the counties of Philadelphia and Alle- 
gheny, all the jurisdiction and powers now vested in the 
District Courts and Courts of Common Pleas, subject to 
such changes as may be made by this Constitution, or by 
law, shall be, in Philadelphia, vested in four, and in Alle- 
gheny in two, distinct and separate Courts of equal and 
co-ordinate jurisdiction, composed of three judges each ; 
the said courts in Philadelphia shall be designated respec- 
tively as the Court of Common Pleas number one, number 
two, number three, and number four, and in Allegheny, 
as the Court of Common Pleas number one and number 
two; but the number of said Courts may be by law 
increased, from time to time, and shall be, in like manner, 
designated by successive numbers ; the number of judges 
in any of said Courts, or in any county where the estab- 
lishment of an additional Court may be authorized by 
law, may be increased, from time to time ; and whenever 
such increase shall amount in the whole to three, such 
three judges shall compose a distinct and separate Court 
as aforesaid, which shall be numbered as aforesaid. In 
Philadelphia, all suits shall be instituted in the said Courts 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 99 

of Common Pleas, without designating the number of said 
Court, and the several Courts shall distribute and appor- 
tion the business among them in such manner as shall be 
provided by rules of Court ; and each Court, to which any 
suit shall be thus assigned, shall have exclusive jurisdic- 
tion thereof, subject to change of venue, as shall be pro- 
vided by law. In Allegheny, each Court shall have 
exclusive jurisdiction of all proceedings at law and in 
equity, commenced therein, subject to change of venue, 
as may be provided by law. 

Section 7. For Philadelphia, there shall be one prothon- 
otary 's office, and one prothonotary for all said Courts, to 
be appointed by the judges of said Courts, and to hold 
office for three years, subject to removal by a majority of 
the said judges ; the said prothonotary shall appoint such 
assistants as may be necessary and authorized by said 
Courts, and he and his assistants shall receive fixed sal- 
aries, to be determined by law and paid by said county ; 
all fees collected in said office, except such as may be by 
law due to the Commonwealth, shall be paid by the pro- 
thonotary into the county treasury. Each Court shall 
have its separate dockets, except the judgment docket, 
which shall contain the judgments and liens of all the said 
Courts, as is or may be directed by law. 

Section 8. The said Courts in the counties of Philadel- 
phia and Allegheny, respectively, shall, from time to time, 
in turn, detail one or more of their judges, to hold the 
Courts of Oyer and Terminer, and the Courts of Quarter 
Sessions of the Peace of said counties, in such manner 
as may be directed by law. 

Section 9. Judges of the Courts of Common Pleas 
learned in the law shall be judges of the Courts of Oyer 
and Terminer, Quarter Sessions of the Peace and General 
Jail Delivery, and of the Orphans' Court, and within their 
respective districts shall be justices of the peace as to 
criminal matters. 



100 CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Section 10. The judges of the Courts of Common Pleas, 
within their respective counties, shall have power to issue 
writs of certiorari to justices of the peace and other inferior 
Courts not of record, and to cause their proceedings to be 
brought before them, and right and justice to be done. 

Section 11. Except as otherwise provided in this Con- 
stitution, justices of the peace or aldermen shall be elected 
in the several wards, districts, boroughs, and townships, at 
the time of the election of constables, by the qualified 
electors thereof, in such manner as shall be directed by 
law, and shall be commissioned by the Governor for a 
term of five years. No township, ward, district, or 
borough shall elect more than two justices of the peace or 
aldermen, without the consent of a majority of the qualified 
electors within such township, ward, or borough ; no 
person shall be elected to such office, unless he shall have 
resided within the township, borough, ward, or district, for 
one year next preceding his election. In cities containing 
over fifty thousand inhabitants, not more than one alder- 
man shall be elected in each ward or district. 

Section 12. In Philadelphia, there shall be established, 
for each thirty thousand inhabitants, one Court, not of 
record, of police and civil causes, with jurisdiction not 
exceeding one hundred dollars ; such Courts shall be held 
by magistrates, whose term of office shall be five years, 
and they shall be elected on general ticket, by the qualified 
voters at large ; and in the election of the said magistrates, 
no voter shall vote for more than two-thirds of the number 
of persons to be elected, when more than one are to be 
chosen ; they shall be compensated only by fixed salaries, 
to be paid by said county ; and shall exercise such juris- 
diction, civil and criminal, except as herein provided, as is 
now exercised by aldermen, subject to such changes, not 
involving an increase of civil jurisdiction, or conferring 
political duties, as may be made by law. In Philadelphia, 
the office of alderman is abolished. 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 101 

Section 13. All fees, fines, and penalties in said courts 
shall be paid into the county treasury. 

Section 14. In all cases of summary conviction in this 
Commonwealth, or of judgment in suit for a penalty 
before a magistrate, or court not of record, either party 
may appeal to such court of record as may be prescribed 
by law, upon allowance of the appellate court, or judge 
thereof, upon cause shown. 

Section 15. All judges required to be learned in the law, 
except the judges of the Supreme Court, shall be elected 
by the qualified electors of the respective districts over 
which they are to preside, and shall hold their offices for 
the period of ten years, if they shall so long behave them- 
selves well ; but for any reasonable cause, which shall not 
be sufficient ground for impeachment, the Governor may 
remove any of them, on the address of two-thirds of each 
House of the General Assembly. 

Section 16. Whenever two judges of the Supreme Court 
are to be chosen for the same term of service, each voter 
shall vote for one only, and w T hen three are to be chosen, 
he shall vote for no more than two ; candidates highest in 
vote shall be declared elected. 

Section 17. Should any two or more judges of the Su- 
preme Court, or any two or more judges of the Court of 
Common Pleas for the same district, be elected at the same 
time, they shall, as soon after the election as convenient, 
cast lots for priority of commission, and certify the result 
to the Governor, who shall issue their commissions in 
accordance therewith. 

Section 18. The judges of the Supreme Court and the 
judges of the several Courts of Common Pleas, and all 
other judges required to be learned in the law, shall, at 
stated times, receive for their services an adequate com- 
pensation, which shall be fixed by law, and paid by the 
State. They shall receive no other compensation, fees, or 
perquisites of office, for their services, from any source ; 



102 CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

nor hold any other office of profit under the United States, 
this State, or any other State. 

Section 19. The judges of the Supreme Court, during 
their continuance in office, shall reside within this Com- 
monwealth ; and the other judges, during their contin- 
uance in office, shall reside within the districts for which 
they shall be respectively elected. 

Section 20. The several Courts of Common Pleas, be- 
sides the powers herein conferred, shall have and exer- 
cise, within their respective districts, subject to such changes 
as may be made by law, such chancery powers as are now 
vested by law in the several Courts of Common Pleas of 
this Commonwealth, or as may hereafter be conferred upon 
them by law. 

Section 21. No duties shall be imposed by law upon 
the Supreme Court or any of the judges thereof, except 
such as are judicial ; nor shall any of the judges thereof 
exercise any power of appointment, except as herein pro- 
vided. The Court of Nisi Prius is hereby abolished ; and 
no court of original jurisdiction, to be presided over by 
any one or more of the judges of the Supreme Court, shall 
be established. 

Section 22. In every county wherein the population 
shall exceed one hundred and fifty thousand, the General 
Assembly shall, and in any other county may, establish a 
separate Orphans' Court, to consist of one or more judges, 
who shall be learned in the law ; which Court shall exer- 
cise all the jurisdiction and powers now vested in, or which 
may hereafter be conferred upon, the Orphans' Courts ; 
and thereupon, the jurisdiction of the judges of the Court 
of Common Pleas within such county, in Orphans' Court 
proceedings, shall cease and determine. In any county in 
which a separate Orphans' Court shall be established, the 
register of wills shall be clerk of such Court, and subject 
to its directions, in all matters pertaining to his office ; he 
may appoint assistant clerks, but only with the consent 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 103 

and approval of said Court. All accounts filed with him 
as register, or as clerk of the said separate Orphans' Court, 
shall be audited by the Court, without expense to parties, 
except where all parties in interest in a pending proceeding 
shall nominate an auditor, whom the Court may, in its 
discretion, appoint. In every county, Orphans' Courts 
shall possess all the powers and jurisdiction of a Regis- 
ter's Court; and separate Registers' Courts are hereby 
abolished. 

Section 23. The style of all process shall be " The Com- 
monwealth of Pennsylvania." All prosecutions shall be 
carried on in the name and by the authority of the Com- 
monwealth of Pennsylvania, and conclude " against the 
peace and dignity of the same." 

Section 24. In all cases of felonious homicide, and in 
such other criminal cases as may be provided for by law? 
the accused, after conviction and sentence, may remove the 
indictment, record, and all proceedings, to the Supreme 
Court, for review. 

Section 25. Any vacancy happening by death, resigna- 
tion, or otherwise, in any court of record, shall be filled by 
appointment, by the Governor, to continue till the first 
Monday of January next succeeding the first general elec- 
tion, which shall occur three or more months after the 
happening of such vacancy. 

Section 26. All laws relating to Courts shall be general, 
and of uniform operation, and the organization, jurisdic- 
tion, and powers of all Courts of the same class or grade, 
so far as regulated by law, and the force and effect of the 
process and judgments of such Courts, shall be uniform ; 
and the General Assembly is hereby prohibited from 
creating other Courts, to exercise the powers vested by 
this Constitution in the judges of the Courts of Common 
Pleas and Orphans' Courts. 

Section 27. The parties, by agreement filed, may, in 
any civil case, dispense with trial by jury, and submit the 



104 CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

decision of such case to the Court having jurisdiction 
thereof, and such Court shall hear and determine the 
same; and the judgment thereon shall be subject to a 
writ of error, as in other cases. 



Article VI. 

IMPEACHMENT AND REMOVAL FROM 
OFFICE. 

Section 1. The House of Representatives shall have the 
sole power of impeachment. 

Section 2. All impeachments shall be tried by the Sen- 
ate ; when sitting for that purpose, the Senators shall be 
upon oath or affirmation; no person shall be convicted 
without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members 
present. 

Section 3. The Governor and all other civil officers 
shall be liable to impeachment for any misdemeanor in 
office ; but judgment in such cases shall not extend further 
than to removal from office and disqualification to hold 
any office of trust or profit under this Commonwealth ; 
the person accused, whether convicted or acquitted, shall, 
nevertheless, be liable to indictment, trial, judgment, and 
punishment, according to law. 

Section 4. All officers shall hold their offices on the 
condition that they behave themselves well while in office, 
and shall be removed, on conviction of misbehavior in 
office, or of any infamous crime. Appointed officers, other 
than judges of the courts of record, and the Superintend- 
ent of Public Instruction, may be removed, at the pleasure 
of the power by which they shall have been appointed. 
All officers elected by the people, except Governor, Lieu- 
tenant-Governor, members of the General Assembly, and 
Judges of the Courts of Record, learned in the law, shall 
be removed by the Governor, for reasonable cause, after 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 105 

due notice and full hearing, on the address of two-thirds 
of the Senate. 

Article VII. 

OATH OF OFFICE. 

Section 1. Senators and Representatives, and all judi- 
cial, State and county officers, shall, before entering on the 
duties of their respective offices, take and subscribe the 
following oath or affirmation : " I do solemnly swear (or 
affirm) that I will support, obey, and defend the Consti- 
tution of the United States, and the Constitution of this 
Commonwealth, and that I will discharge the duties of 
my office with fidelity ; that I have not paid or contrib- 
uted, or promised to pay or contribute, either directly or 
indirectly, any money or other valuable thing, to procure 
my nomination or election (or appointment), except for 
necessary and proper expenses expressly authorized by 
law ; that I have not knowingly violated any election law 
of this Commonwealth, or procured it to be done by 
others in my behalf; that I will not knowingly receive, 
directly or indirectly, any money or other valuable thing 
for the performance or non-performance of any act or 
duty pertaining to my office, other than the compensation 
allowed by law." 

The foregoing oath shall be administered by some per- 
son authorized to administer oaths, and in the case of 
State officers and judges of the Supreme Court, shall 
be filed in the office of the Secretary of the Common- 
wealth, and in the case of other judicial and county 
officers, in the office of the prothonotary of the county in 
which the same is taken ; any person refusing to take said 
oath or affirmation, shall forfeit his office ; and any person 
who shall be convicted of having sworn or affirmed falsely, 
or of having violated said oath or affirmation, shall be 
guilty of perjury, and be for ever disqualified from hold- 



106 CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

ing any office of trust or profit within this Commonwealth. 
The oath to the members of the Senate and House of 
Representatives shall be administered by one of the judges 
of the Supreme Court, or of a Court of Common Pleas 
learned in the law, in the hall of the House to which the 
members shall be elected. 

Article VIII. 

SUFFRAGE AND ELECTIONS. 

Section 1. Every male citizen, twenty-one years of age, 
possessing the following qualifications, shall be entitled to 
vote at all elections : 

I. He shall have been a citizen of the United States at 
least one month. 

II. He shall have resided in the State one year (or if, 
having previously been a qualified elector or native-born 
citizen of the State, he shall have removed therefrom and 
returned, then six .months) immediately preceding the 
election. 

III. He shall have resided in the election district where 
he shall offer to vote at least two months immediately 
preceding the election. 

IV. If twenty-two years of age or upwards, he shall 
have paid, within two years, a State or county tax, which 
shall have been assessed at least two months, and paid at 
least one month, before the election. 

Section 2. The general election shall be held annually 
on the Tuesday next following the first Monday of Novem- 
ber ; but the General Assembly may by law jix a different 
day, two-thirds of all the members of each House con- 
senting thereto. 

Section 3. All elections for city, ward, borough, and 
township officers, for regular terms of service, shall be 
held on the third Tuesday of February. 

Section 4. All elections by the citizens shall be by 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 107 

ballot. Every ballot voted shall be numbered in the order 
in which it shall be received, and the number recorded by 
the election officers on the list of voters, opposite the name 
of the elector who presents the ballot. Any elector may 
write his name upon his ticket, or cause the same to be 
written thereon, and attested by a citizen of the district. 
The election officers shall be sworn or affirm not to dis- 
close how any elector shall have voted, unless required to 
do so as witnesses in a judicial proceeding. 

Section 5. Electors shall in all cases, except treason, 
felony, and breach or surety of the peace, be privileged 
from arrest during their attendance on elections, and in 
going to and returning therefrom. 

Section 6. Whenever any of the qualified electors of 
this Commonwealth shall be in actual military service, 
under a requisition from the President of the United 
States, or by the authority of this Commonwealth, such 
electors may exercise the right of suffrage, in all elections 
by the citizens, under such regulations as are or shall be 
prescribed by law, as fully as if they were present at their 
usual places of election. 

Section 7. All laws regulating the holding of elections 
by the citizens, or for the registration of electors, shall be 
uniform throughout the State; but no elector shall be 
deprived of the privilege of voting by reason of his name 
not being registered. 

Section 8. Any person who shall give, or promise, or 
offer to give, to an elector, any money, reward, or other 
valuable consideration, for his vote at an election, or for 
withholding the same, or who shall give, or promise to give, 
such consideration to any other person or party, for such 
elector's vote, or for the withholding thereof, and any elec- 
tor who shall receive, or agree to receive, for himself or for 
another, any money, reward, or other valuable consider- 
ation, for his vote at an election, or for withholding the 
same, shall thereby forfeit the right to vote at such elec- 



108 CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

tion; and any elector whose right to vote shall be chal- 
lenged for such cause, before the election officers, shall 
be required to swear or affirm that the matter of the chal- 
lenge is untrue, before his vote shall be received. 

Section 9. Any person who shall, while a candidate for 
office, be guilty of bribery, fraud, or wilful violation of 
any election law, shall be forever disqualified from holding 
an office of trust or profit in this Commonwealth ; and any 
person convicted of wilful violation of the election laws, 
shall, in addition to any penalties provided by law, be 
deprived of the right of suffrage absolutely for a term of 
four years. 

Section 10. In trials of contested elections, and in pro- 
ceedings for the investigation of elections, no person shall 
be permitted to withhold his testimony, upon the ground 
that it may criminate himself, or subject him to public 
infamy ; but such testimony shall not afterwards be used 
against him, in any judicial proceeding, except for perjury 
in giving such testimony. 

Section 11. Townships, and wards of cities or boroughs, 
shall form or be divided into election districts of compact 
and contiguous territory, in such manner as the Court of 
Quarter Sessions of the city or county in which the same 
are located may direct ; but districts in cities of over one 
hundred thousand inhabitants shall be divided by the 
Courts of Quarter Sessions, having jurisdiction therein, 
whenever, at the next preceding election, more than two 
hundred and fifty votes shall have been polled therein ; 
and other election districts, whenever the Court of . the 
proper county shall be of opinion that the convenience 
of the electors and the public interests will be promoted 
thereby. 

Section 12. All elections by persons in a representative 
capacity shall be viva voce. 

Section 13. For the purpose of voting, no person shall 
be deemed to have gained a residence, by reason of his 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 109 

presence, or lost it, by reason of his absence, while em- 
ployed in the service, either civil or military, of this State 
or of the United States, nor while engaged in the naviga- 
tion of the waters of the State or of the United States, or 
on the high seas, nor while a student of any institution of 
learning, nor while kept in any poor-house or other asylum, 
at public expense, nor while confined in public prison. 

Section 14. District election boards shall consist of a 
judge and two inspectors, who shall be chosen annually 
by the citizens. Each elector shall have the right to vole 
for the judge and one inspector, and each inspector shall 
appoint one clerk. The first election board for any new 
district shall be selected, and vacancies in election boards 
filled, as shall be provided by law. Election officers shall 
be privileged from arrest upon days of election, and while 
engaged in making up and transmitting returns, except 
upon warrant of a court of record or judge thereof, for an 
election fraud, for felony, or for wanton breach of the peace. 
In cities they may claim exemption from jury duty during 
their terms of service. 

Section 15. No person shall be qualified to serve as an 
election officer who shall hold, or shall, within two months, 
have held, any office, appointment, or employment in or 
under the government of the United States or of this State, 
or of any city or county, or of any municipal board, com- 
mission, or trust, in any city, save only justices of the 
peace and aldermen, notaries public, and persons in the 
militia service of the State ; nor shall any election officer 
be eligible to any civil office, to be filled at an election at 
which he shall serve, save only to such subordinate mu- 
nicipal or local offices, below the grade of city or county 
offices, as shall be designated by general law. 

Section 16. The Courts of Common Pleas of the several 
counties of the Commonwealth shall have power, within 
their respective jurisdictions, to appoint overseers of elec- 
tions, to supervise the proceedings of election officers, and 



110 CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

to make report to the Court as may be required ; such 
appointments to be made for any district in a city or 
county, upon petition of five citizens, lawful voters of 
such election district, setting forth that such appointment 
is a reasonable precaution to secure the purity and fair- 
ness of elections ; overseers shall be two in number for an 
election district, shall be residents therein, and shall be 
persons qualified to serve upon election boards, and in 
each case members of different political parties ; whenever 
the members of an election board shall differ in opinion, 
the overseers, if they shall be agreed thereon, shall decide 
the question of difference ; in appointing overseers of 
election, all the law judges of the proper Court, able to act 
at the time, shall concur in the appointments made. 

Section 17. The trial and determination of contested 
elections of electors of President and Vice-President, mem- 
bers of the General Assembly, and of all public officers, 
whether State, judicial, municipal, or local, shall be by 
the Courts of law, or by one or more of the law judges 
thereof; the General Assembly shall, by general law, des- 
ignate the Courts and judges by whom the several classes 
of election contests shall be tried, and regulate the manner 
of trial, and all matters incident thereto ; but no such law 
assigning jurisdiction, or regulating its exercise, shall apply 
to any contest arising out of an election held before its 
passage. 

Article IX. 

TAXATION AND FINANCE. 

Section 1. All taxes shall be uniform upon the same 
class of subjects, within the territorial limits of the au- 
thority levying the tax, and shall be levied and collected 
under general laws ; but the General Assembly may, by 
general laws, exempt from taxation public property used 
for public purposes, actual places of religious worship, 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. Ill 

places of burial not used or held for private or corporate 
profit, and institutions of purely public charity. 

Section 2. All laws exempting property from taxation, 
other than the property above enumerated, shall be void. 

Section 3. The power to tax corporations and corporate 
property shall not be surrendered or suspended, by any 
contract or grant to which the State shall be a party. 

Section 4. No debt shall be created by or on behalf of 
the State, except to supply casual deficiencies of revenue, 
repel invasion, suppress insurrection, defend the State in 
war, or to pay existing debt; and the debt created to 
supply deficiencies in revenue, shall never exceed, in the 
aggregate, at any one time, one million of dollars. 

Section 5. All laws authorizing the borrowing of money 
by and on behalf of the State, shall specify the purpose 
for which the money is to be used ; and the money so 
borrowed shall be used for the purpose specified, and no 
other. 

Section 6. The credit of the Commonwealth shall not 
be pledged or loaned to any individual, company, corpor- 
ation, or association ; nor shall the Commonwealth become 
a joint owner or stockholder in any company, association, 
or corporation. 

Section 7. The General Assembly shall not authorize 
any county, city, borough, township, or incorporated dis- 
trict to become a stockholder in any company, association, 
or corporation, or to obtain or appropriate money for, or 
to loan its credit to, any corporation, association, institu- 
tion, or individual. 

Section 8. The debt of any county, city, borough, town- 
ship, school district, or other municipality or incorporated 
district, except as herein provided, shall never exceed 
seven per centum upon the assessed value of the taxable 
property therein, nor shall any such municipality or dis- 
trict incur any new debt, or increase its indebtedness, to 
an amount exceeding two per centum upon such assessed 



1 1 2 CONSTITUTION OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

valuation of property, without the assent of the electors 
thereof, at a public election, in such manner as shall be 
provided by law ; but any city, the debt of which now 
exceeds seven per centum of such assessed valuation, may 
be authorized by law to increase the same three per 
centum in the aggregate, at any one time, upon such valu- 
ation. 

Section 9. The Commonwealth shall not assume the 
debt, or any part thereof, of any city, county, borough, 
or township, unless such debt shall have been contracted 
to enable the State to repel invasion, suppress domestic 
insurrection, defend itself in time of war, or to assist the 
State in the discharge of any portion of its present indebt- 
edness. 

Section 10. Any county, township, school district, or 
other municipality, incurring any indebtedness, shall, at 
or before the time of so doing, provide for the collection 
of an annua] tax sufficient to pay the interest, and also 
the principal thereof within thirty years. 

Section 11. To provide for the payment of the present 
State debt, and any additional debt contracted as afore- 
said, the General Assembly shall continue and maintain 
the sinking fund, sufficient to pay the accruing interest on 
such debt, and annually to reduce the principal thereof, 
by a sum not less than two hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars; the said sinking fund shall consist of the pro- 
ceeds of the sales of the public works or any part thereof, 
and of the income or proceeds of the sale of any stocks 
owned by the Commonwealth, together with other funds 
and resources that may be designated by law, and shall 
be increased from time to time, by assigning to it any part 
of the taxes or other revenues of the State not required 
for the ordinary and current expenses of Government; 
and unless in case of war, invasion, or insurrection, no 
part of the said sinking fund shall be used or applied 
otherwise than in the extinguishment of the public debt. 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 113 

Section 12. The moneys of the State, over and above 
the necessary reserve, shall be used in the payment of the 
debt of the State, either directly or through the sinking 
fund ; and the moneys of the sinking fund shall never be 
invested in or loaned upon the security of anything, 
except the bonds of the United States or of this State. 

Section 13. The moneys held as necessary reserve shall 
be limited by law to the amount required for current 
expenses, and shall be secured and kept as may be pro- 
vided by law. Monthly statements shall be published, 
showing the amount of such moneys, where the same are 
deposited, and how secured. 

Section 14. The making of profit out of the public 
moneys, or using the same for any purpose not authorized 
by law, by any officer of the State, or member or officer 
of the General Assembly, shall be a misdemeanor, and 
shall be punished as may be provided by law ; but part 
of such punishment shall be disqualification to hold office 
for a period of not less than five years. 



Article X. 

EDUCATION. 

Section 1. The General Assembly shall provide for the 
maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient 
system of public schools, wherein all the children of this 
Commonwealth, above the age of six years, may be edu- 
cated, and shall appropriate at least one million dollars 
each year for that purpose. 

Section 2. No money raised for the support of the pub- 
lic schools of the Commonwealth, shall be appropriated to 
or used for the support of any sectarian school. 

Section 3. Women twenty-one years of age and up- 
wards shall be eligible to any office of control or manage- 
ment under the school laws of this State. 

8 



114 CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Article XL 

MILITIA. 

Section 1. The freemen of this Commonwealth shall be 
armed, organized, and disciplined for its defence, when 
and in such manner as may be directed by law. The 
General Assembly shall provide for maintaining the mil- 
itia, by appropriations from the treasury of the Common- 
wealth; and may exempt from military service persons 
having conscientious scruples against bearing arms. 

Article XII. 

PUBLIC OFFICERS. 

Section 1. All officers, whose selection is not provided 
for in this Constitution, shall be elected or appointed as 
may be directed by law. 

Section 2. No member of Congress from this State, nor 
any person holding or exercising any office or appoint- 
ment of trust or profit under the United States, shall, at 
the same time, hold or exercise any office in this State, to 
which a salary, fees, or perquisites shall be attached. The 
General Assembly may by law declare what offices are 
incompatible. 

Section 3. Any person who shall fight a duel, or send 
a challenge for that purpose, or be aider or abettor in 
fighting a duel, shall be deprived of the right of holding 
any office of honor or profit in this State, and may be 
otherwise punished as shall be prescribed by law. 

Article XIII. 

NEW COUNTIES. 

Section 1. No new county shall be established which 
shall reduce any county to less than four hundred square 
miles, or to less than twenty thousand inhabitants; nor 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 115 

shall any county be formed of less area, or containing a 
less population ; nor shall any line thereof pass within 
ten miles of the county seat of any county proposed to be 
divided. 

Article XIV. 

COUNTY OFFICERS. 

Section 1. County officers shall consist of sheriffs, cor- 
oners, prothonotaries, registers of wills, recorders of deeds, 
commissioners, treasurers, surveyors, auditors, or control- 
lers, clerks of the courts, district-attorneys, and such others 
as may, from time to time, be established by law ; and no 
sheriff or treasurer shall be eligible for the term next suc- 
ceeding the one for which he may be elected. 

Section 2. County officers shall be elected at the gen- 
eral elections, and shall hold their offices for the term of 
three years, beginning on the first Monday of January 
next after their election, and until their successors shall 
be duly qualified ; all vacancies not otherwise provided 
for, shall be filled in such manner as may be provided 
by law. 

Section 3. No person shall be appointed to any office 
within any county, who shall have not been a citizen and 
an inhabitant therein one year next before his appoint- 
ment, if the county shall have been so long erected ; but 
if it shall not have been so long erected, then within the 
limits of the county or counties out of which it shall have 
been taken. 

Section 4. Prothonotaries, clerks of the courts, recorders 
of deeds, registers of wills, county-surveyors, and sheriffs, 
shall keep their offices in the county town of the county 
in which they respectively shall be officers. 

Section 5. The compensation of county officers shall 
be regulated by law, and all county officers who are or 
mav be salaried, shall pay all fees which they may be 



116 CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

authorized to receive, into the treasury of the county or 
State, as may be directed by law. In counties containing 
over one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, all 
county officers shall be paid by salary ; and the salary of 
any such officer and his clerks, heretofore paid by fees, 
shall not exceed the aggregate amount of fees earned dur- 
ing his term and collected by or for him. 

Section 6. The General Assembly shall provide by law 
for the strict accountability of all county, township, and 
borough officers, as well for the fees which may be col- 
lected by them, as for all public or municipal moneys 
which may be paid to them. 

Section 7. Three county commissioners and three coun- 
ty auditors shall be elected in each county where such 
officers are chosen, in the year 1875, and every third year 
thereafter ; and in the election of said officers, each qual- 
ified elector shall vote for no more than two persons, and 
the three persons having the highest number of votes shall 
be elected; any casual vacancy in the office of county 
commissioner or county auditor shall be filled by the 
Court of Common Pleas of the county in which such va- 
cancy shall occur, by the appointment of an elector of the 
proper county, who shall have voted for the commissioner 
or auditor whose place is to be filled. 

Article XV. 

CITIES AND CITY CHARTERS. 

Section 1. Cities may be chartered, whenever a majority 
of the electors of any town or borough, having a popula- 
tion of at least ten thousand, shall vote, at any general 
election, in favor of the same. 

Section 2. No debt shall be contracted or liability in- 
curred by any municipal commission, except in pursuance 
of an appropriation previously made therefor by the 
municipal government. 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 117 

Section 3. Every city shall create a sinking fund, which 
shall be inviolably pledged for the payment of its funded 
debt. 

Article XVI. 

PRIVATE CORPORATIONS. 

Section 1. All existing charters, or grants of special or 
exclusive privileges, under which a bona fide organization 
shall not have taken place, and business been commenced 
in good faith, at the time of the adoption of this Consti- 
tution, shall thereafter have no validity. 

Section 2. The General Assembly shall not remit the 
forfeiture of the charter of any corporation now existing, 
or alter or amend the same, or pass any other general or 
special law for the benefit of such corporation, except 
upon the condition that such corporation shall thereafter 
hold its charter subject to the provisions of this Constitu- 
tion. 

Section 3. The exercise of the right of eminent domain 
shall never be abridged, or so construed as to prevent the 
General Assembly from taking the property and franchises 
of incorporated companies, and subjecting them to public 
use, the same as the property of individuals; and the 
exercise of the police power of the State shall never be 
abridged or so construed as to permit corporations to con- 
duct their business in such manner as to infringe the 
equal rights of individuals or the general well-being of the 
State. 

Section 4. In all elections for directors or managers of 
a corporation, each member or shareholder may cast the 
whole number of his votes for one candidate, or distribute 
them upon two or more candidates, as he may prefer. 

Section 5. No foreign corporation shall do any business 
in this State, without having one or more known places of 
business, and an authorized agent or agents in the same, 
upon whom process may be served. 



118 CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Section 6. No corporation shall engage in any business 
other than that expressly authorized in its charter ; nor 
shall it take or hold any real estate, except such as may 
be necessary and proper for its legitimate business. 

Section 7. No corporation shall issue stocks or bonds, 
except for money, labor done, or money or property 
actually received; and all fictitious increase of stock or 
indebtedness shall be void. The stock and indebtedness 
of corporations shall not be increased except in pursuance 
of general law, nor without the consent of the persons 
holding the larger amount in value of the stock, first 
obtained, at a meeting to be held, after sixty days' notice, 
given in pursuance of law. 

Section 8. Municipal and other corporations, and indi- 
viduals invested with the privilege of taking private prop- 
erty for public use, shall make just compensation for 
property taken, injured, or destroyed by the construction 
or enlargement of their works, highways, or improvements, 
which compensation shall be paid or secured before such 
taking, injury, or destruction. The General Assembly is 
hereby prohibited from depriving any person of an appeal 
from any preliminary assessment of damages against any 
such corporations or individuals, made by viewers or 
otherwise ; and the amount of such damages, in all cases 
of appeal, shall, on the demand of either party, be deter- 
mined by a jury, according to the course of the common 
law. 

Section 9. Every banking law shall provide for the 
registry and countersigning, by an officer of the State, of 
all notes or bills designed for circulation ; and that ample 
security to the full amount thereof shall be deposited 
with the auditor-general, for the redemption of such notes 
or bills. 

Section 10. The General Assembly shall have the power 
to alter, revoke, or annul any charter of incorporation now 
existing, and revocable at the adoption of this Constitu- 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 119 

tion, or any that may hereafter be created, whenever, in 
their opinion, it may be injurious to the citizens of this 
Commonwealth, in such manner, however, that no injustice 
shall be done to the corporatprs. No law hereafter enacted 
shall create, renew, or extend the charter of more than one 
corporation. 

Section 11. No corporate body to possess banking and 
discounting privileges, shall be created or organized, in 
pursuance of any law, without three months' previous 
public notice, at the place of the intended location, of 
the intention to apply for such privileges, in such manner 
as shall be prescribed by law; nor shall a charter for 
such privilege be granted for a longer period than twenty 
years. 

Section 12. Any association or corporation organized 
for the purpose, or any individual, shall have the right to 
construct and maintain lines of telegraph within this 
State, and to connect the same with other lines; and the 
General Assembly shall, by general law, of uniform oper- 
ation, provide reasonable regulations to give full effect to 
this section. No telegraph company shall consolidate 
with, or hold a controlling interest in, the stock or bonds 
of any other telegraph company, owning a competing line, 
or acquire, by purchase or otherwise, any other competing 
line of telegraph. 

Section 13. The term "corporations," as used in this 
article, shall be construed to include all joint stock com- 
panies or associations, having any of the powers or privi- 
leges of corporations not possessed by individuals or part- 
nerships. 

Article XVII. 

RAILROADS AND CANALS. 

Section 1. All railroads and canals shall be public 
highways, and all railroad and canal companies shall be 



120 CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

common carriers. Any association or corporation organ- 
ized for the purpose, shall have the right to construct and 
operate a railroad between any points within this State, 
and to connect, at the State line, with railroads of other 
States. Every railroad company shall have the right, 
with its road, to intersect, connect with, or cross any other 
railroad ; and shall receive and transport each the other's 
passengers, tonnage, and cars, loaded or empty, without 
delay or discrimination. 

Section 2. Every railroad and canal corporation organ- 
ized in this State shall maintain an office therein, where 
transfers of its stock shall be made, and where its books 
shall be kept for inspection by any stockholder or creditor 
of such corporation, in which shall be recorded the amount 
of capital stock subscribed or paid in, and by whom, the 
names of the owners of its stock, and the amounts owned 
by them, respectively, the transfers of said stock, and the 
names and places of residence of its officers. 

Section 3. All individuals, associations, and corporations 
shall have equal right to have persons and property trans- 
ported over railroads and canals, and no undue or unrea- 
sonable discrimination shall be made, in charges for, or in 
facilities for, transportation of freight or passengers, within 
the State, or coming from or going to* any other State. 
Persons and property transported over any railroad, shall 
be delivered at any station, at charges not exceeding the 
charges for transportation of persons and property of the 
same class, in the same direction, to any more distant 
station; but excursion and commutation tickets may be 
issued at special rates. 

Section 4. No railroad, canal, or other corporation, or 
the lessees, purchasers, or managers of any railroad or 
canal corporation, shall consolidate the stock, property, or 
franchises of such corporation, with, or lease or purchase 
the works or franchises of, or in any way control, any 
other railroad or canal corporation, owning or having 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 121 

under its control a parallel or competing line ; nor shall 
any officer of such railroad or canal corporation act as an 
officer of any other railroad or canal corporation, owning 
or having the control of a parallel or competing line ; and 
the question whether railroads or canals are parallel or 
competing lines shall, when demanded by the party com- 
plainant, be decided by a jury, as in other civil issues. 

Section 5. No incorporated company, doing the busi- 
ness of a common carrier, shall, directly or indirectly, 
prosecute or engage in mining or manufacturing articles, 
for transportation over its works ; nor shall such company, 
directly or indirectly, engage in any other business than 
that of common carriers, or hold or acquire lands, freehold 
or leasehold, directly or indirectly, except such as shall be 
necessary for carrying on its business ; but any mining or 
manufacturing company may carry the products of its 
mines and manufactories on its railroad or canal, not 
exceeding fifty miles in length. 

Section 6. No president, director, officer, agent, or em- 
ploye of any railroad or canal company, shall be inter- 
ested, directly or indirectly, in the furnishing of material 
or supplies to such company, or in the business of trans- 
portation as a common carrier of freight or passengers 
over the w r orks owned, leased, controlled, or worked by 
such company. 

Section 7. No discrimination in charges, or facilities 
for transportation, shall be made between transportation 
companies and individuals, or in favor of either, by abate- 
ment, drawback, or otherwise ; and no railroad or canal 
company, or any lessee, manager, or employe thereof, 
shall make any preferences in furnishing cars or motive 
power. 

Section 8. No railroad, railway, or other transportation 
company shall grant free passes, or passes at a discount, to 
any person, except officers or employes of the company. 

Section 9. No street passenger railway shall be con- 



122 CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

structed within the limits of any city, borough, or town- 
ship, without the consent of its local authorities. 

Section 10. No railroad, canal, or other transportation 
company, in existence at the time of the adoption of this 
article, shall have the benefit of any future legislation, by 
general or special laws, except on condition of complete 
acceptance of all the provisions of this article. 

Section 11. The existing powers and duties of the au- 
ditor-general, in regard to railroads, canals, and other 
transportation companies, except as to their accounts, are 
hereby transferred to the secretary of internal affairs, who 
shall have a general supervision over them, subject to such 
regulations and alterations as shall be provided by law ; 
and, in addition to the annual reports now required to be 
made, said secretary may require special reports, at any 
time, upon any subject relating to the business of said 
companies, from any officer or officers thereof. 

Section 12. The General Assembly shall enforce, by ap- 
propriate legislation, the provisions of this article. 

Article XVIII. 

FUTURE AMENDMENTS. 

Section 1. Any amendment or amendments to this 
Constitution may be proposed in the Senate or House of 
Representatives ; and, if the same shall be agreed to by a 
majority of the members elected to each House, such pro- 
posed amendment or amendments shall be entered on their 
journals, with the yeas and nays taken thereon, and the 
Secretary of the Commonwealth shall cause the same to 
be published, three months before the next general elec- 
tion, in at least two newspapers in every county in which 
such newspapers shall be published ; and if, in the General 
Assembly next afterwards chosen, such proposed amend- 
ment or amendments shall be agreed to by a majority of 
the members elected to each House, the Secretary of the 



CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 123 

Commonwealth shall cause the same again to be published 
in the manner aforesaid ; and such proposed amendment 
or amendments shall be submitted to the qualified electors 
of the State, in such manner, and at such time, at least 
three months after being so agreed to by the two Houses, 
as the General Assembly shall prescribe; and if such 
amendment or amendments shall be approved by a ma- 
jority of those voting thereon, such amendment or amend- 
ments shall become a part of the Constitution ; but no 
amendment or amendments shall be submitted oftener 
than once in five years. When two or more amendments 
shall be submitted, they shall be voted upon separately. 



SUBJECTS OF THE SEVERAL ARTICLES OP 
THE CONSTITUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

<K)^W 

PAGE 

Article I. Declaration of Eights 76 

II. The Legislature .80 

III. Legislation 84 

IV. The Executive 91 

V. The Judiciary . . 97 

VI. Impeachment and Removal from Office 104 

VII. The Oath of Office 105 

VIII. Suffrage and Elections 106 

IX. Taxation and Finance 110 

X. Education 113 

XL The Militia 114 

XII. Public Officers 114 

XIII. New Counties 114 

XIV. County Officers 115 

XV. Cities and City Charters 116 

XVI. Private Corporations 117 

XVII. Railroads and Canals 119 

XVIII. Future Amendments 122 



APPENDIX. 



-OO^O 



THE JUDICIAL DISTRICTS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Pennsylvania is divided into fifty-four judicial districts, as follows : 



1. Philadelphia County. 


28. 


Venango " 


2. Lancaster " 


29. 


Lycoming " 


3. Northampton " 


30. 


Crawford " 


4. Tioga " 


31. 


Lehigh 


5. Allegheny " 


32. 


Delaware " 


6. Erie " 


33. 


Armstrong " 


7. Bucks 


34. 


Susquehanna " 


8. Northumberland" 


35. 


Mercer " 


9. Cumberland " 


36. 


Beaver " 


10. Westmoreland " 


37. 


Warren and Forest Counties. 


11. Luzerne " 


38. 


Montgomery County. 


12. Dauphin " 


39. 


Franklin " 


13. Greene " 


40. 


Indiana " 


14. Fayette " 


41. 


Juniata and Perry Counties. 


15. Chester 


42. 


Bradford County. 


16. Bedford and Somerset Counties. 


43. 


Carbon and Monroe Counties. 


17. Union and Snyder " 


44. 


Wyoming and Sullivan " 


18. Clarion County. 


45. 


Lackawanna County. 


19. York " 


46. 


Clearfield 


20. Huntingdon and Mifflin Co's. 


47. 


Cambria " 


21. Schuylkill County. 


48. 


McKean and Potter Counties. 


22. Wayne and Pike Counties. 


49. 


Centre County. 


23. Berks County. 


50. 


Butler " 


24. Blair 


51. 


Adams and Fulton Counties. 


25. Clinton, Cameron and Elk Co's. 


52. 


Lebanon County. 


26. Columbia and Montour " 


53. 


Lawrence " 


27. Washington County. 


54. 


Jefferson " 



The judges of the courts are not county officers ; they are officers of 
the judicial district which a county forms, or of which it is a part. 
124 



APPENDIX. 



125 



THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICERS OF PENNSYL- 
VANIA SINCE 1776. 



Benjamin Franklin, 

Chairman of the Committee of Safety, Sept^ 1776, to March, 1777. 

Pkesidents of the Supreme Executive Council. 
Name. Term of Office. 

Thomas Wharton, Jr March 5, 1777, to May 23, 1778 

George Bryan May 

Joseph Eeed Dec. 

William Moore Nov. 

John Dickinson .......... Nov. 

Benjamin Franklin . . Oct. 

Thomas Mifflin Nov. 



Thomas Mifflin Dec. 

Thomas McKean Dec. 

Simon Snyder Dec. 

William Findlay Dec. 

Joseph Hiester , Dec. 

John Andrew Shulze Dec. 

George Wolf Dec. 

Joseph Bitner Dec. 

David Bittenhouse Porter Jan. 

Francis Bawn Shunk* Jan. 

William Freame Johnston ..... July 

William Bigler Jan. 

James Pollock Jan. 

William Fisher Packer Jan. 

Andrew Gregg Curtin Jan. 

John White Geary Jan. 

John Frederick Hartranft Jan. 

Henry Martyn Hoyt Jan. 

Bobert Emory Pattison Jan. 

James Adams Beaver Jan. 

Bobert Emory Pattison Jan. 

Daniel Hartman Hastings Jan. 

1 Resigned July 9, 1848. There was an interregnum from July 9, 1848, to July 
26, 1848. Johnston did not take the oath of office till July 26, 1848. 



23, 1778, to Dec. 


1, 1778 


1, 1778, to Oct. 


8, 1781 


14, 1781, to Oct. 


8, 1782 


7, 1782, to Oct. 


18, 1785 


18, 1785, to Oct. 


14, 1788 


5, 1788, to Dec. 


20, 1790 


SINCE 1790. 




21, 1790, to Dec. 


17, 1799 


17, 1799, to Dec. 


20, 1808 


20, 1808, to Dec. 


16, 1817 


16, 1817, to Dec. 


19, 1820 


19, 1820, to Dec. 


16, 1823 


16, 1823, to Dec. 


15, 1829 


15, 1829, to Dec. 


15, 1835 


15, 1835, to Jan. 


15, 1839 


15, 1839, to Jan. 


21, 1845 


21, 1845, to July 


9, 1848 


26, 1848, to Jan. 


20, 1852 


20, 1852, to Jan. 


16, 1855 


16, 1855, to Jan. 


19, 1858 


19, 1858, to Jan. 


15, 1861 


15, 1861, to Jan. 


15, 1867 


15, 1867, to Jan. 


21, 1873 


21, 1873, to Jan. 


18, 1879 


18, 1879, to Jan. 


16, 1883 


16, 1883, to Jan. 


18, 1887 


18, 1887, to Jan. 


20, 1891 


20, 1891, to Jan. 


15, 1895 


15, 1895 





126 



APPENDIX. 



Comparative View of the Population of the Sev- 
eral Counties of Pennsylvania, according to the 
Census of 1880 and the Census of 1890. 



County. 



Adams 

Allegheny .... 
Armstrong .... 

Beaver 

Bedford 

Berks 

Blair 

Bradford .... 

Bucks 

Butler 

Cambria 

Cameron 

Carbon 

Centre 

Chester 

Clarion 

Clearfield . . . . 

Clinton 

Columbia . . . . 
Crawford .... 
Cumberland . . . 

Dauphin 

Delaware . . . . 

Elk 

Erie 

Fayette 

Forest 

Franklin . . . . 

Fulton 

Greene 

Huntingdon . . . 

Indiana 

Jefferson 



County Seat. 



Gettysburg 
Pittsburgh 
Kittanning 
Beaver 
Bedford . 
Beading . 
Hollidaysburgh 
Towanda 
Doylestown 
Butler . . 
Ebensburgh 
Emporium 
Mauch Chunk 
Bellefonte . 
West Chester 
Clarion . . 
Clearfield 
Lock Haven 
Bloomsburg 
Meadville 
Carlisle . 
Harrisburg 
Media . . 
Kidgway . 
Erie . . . 
Uniontown 
Tionesta . . . 
Chambersburg 
McConnellsburg 
Waynesburg . 
Huntingdon . 
Indiana . . . 
Brookville . . 



Pop. in 

1880. 



32,455 
355,869 
47,611 
39,605 
34,929 
122,597 
52,740 
58,541 
68,656 
52,536 
46,811 
5,159 
31,923 
37,922 
83,481 
40,328 
43,408 
26,278 
32,409 
68,607 
45,977 
76,148 
56,101 
12,800 
74,688 
58,842 
4,385 
49,855 
10,149 
28,273 
33,954 
40,527 
27,935 



Pop. in 

1890. 



33,486 
551,959 
46,747 
50,077 
38,644 
137,327 
70,866 
59,233 
70,615 
55,339 
66,375 
7,238 
38,624 
43,269 
89,377 
36,802 
69,565 
28,685 
36,832 
65,324 
47,271 
96,977 
74,683 
22,239 
86,074 
80,006 
8,482 
51,433 
10,137 
28,935 
35,751 
42,175 
44,005 



* Decrease. 



APPENDIX. 



127 



Population of Pennsylvania. — Continued. 



County. 



Juniata . . . . 
Lackawanna . . 
Lancaster . . . 
Lawrence . . . 
Lebanon . . . . 
Lehigh . . . . 
Luzerne . . . . 
Lycoming . . . 
McKean . . . . 
Mercer . . . . 
Mifflin . . . . 
Monroe . . . . 
Montgomery . . 
Montour . . . . 
Northampton . . 
Northumberland 

Perry 

Philadelphia . . 

Pike 

Potter . . . . 
Schuylkill . . . 
Snyder . . . . 
Somerset . . . 
Sullivan . . . . 
Susquehanna . . 

Tioga 

Union 

Venango . . . . 
Warren . . . . 
Washington . . 
Wayne . . . . 
Westmoreland . 
Wyoming . . . 
York 



County Seat. 



Mifflintown 
Scranton . 
Lancaster 
New Castle 
Lebanon 
Allentown 
Wilkes Barre 
Williamsport 
Smethport . 
Mercer . . 
Lewistown . 
Stroudsburg 
Norristown 
Danville . . 
Easton . . 
Sunbury . . 
New Bloomfield 
Philadelphia 
Milford . . 
Coudersport 
Pottsville . 
Middleburg 
Somerset 
Laporte . . 
Montrose 
Wellsboro . 
Lewisburg . 
Franklin 
Warren . . 
Washington 
Honesdale . 
Greensburg 
Tunkhannock 
York . . . 



Pop. in 

1880. 



18,227 
89,269 

139,447 
33,312 
38,476 
65,996 

133,065 
57,486 
42,565 
56,161 
19,577 
20,175 
96,494 
15,468 
70,312 
53,123 
27,522 

847,170 

9,663 

13,797 

129,974 
17,797 
33,110 
8,073 
40,354 
45,814 
16,905 
43,670 
27,981 
55,418 
33,513 
78,036 
15,598 
87,841 



Pop. in 

1890. 



16,665 

142,088 

149,095 
37,517 
48,131 
76,631 

201,203 
70,579 22.7 
46,863 10.0 
55,744 *0.7 



Inc. 
p. c. 



*8.6 
59.0 
6.9 
12.6 
15.0 
16.0 
51.0 



19,996 

20,111 

123,290 

15,645 



84,220^ 19.0 

74,698 

26,276 

1,046,964 

9,412 

22,778 
154,163 

17,651 

37,317 

11,620 

40,093 

52,313 

17,820 

46,640 

37,585 

71,155 

31,010 
112,819 

15,891 

99,489 



4,282,891 



5,258,014 22.7 



2.0 
*0.3 
27.0 

1.0 



40.6 
*4.5 
21.2 
*2.5 
65.0 
18.5 
*0.8 
12.7 
43.9 
*0.6 
14.0 
5.4 
6.8 
30.0 
28.0 
*7.4 
44.0 
1.2 
13.3 



* Decrease. 



128 



APPENDIX. 



Cities and Boroughs in Pennsylvania having a 
Population over 5000, according to the Census 
of 1890.1 

Philadelphia 1,046,964 

Pittsburgh 238,617 

Allegheny 105,287 

Scranton 75,215 

Beading 58,661 

Erie 40,634 

Harrisburg 39,385 

Wilkes Barre 37,718 

Lancaster 32,011 

Altoona 30,337 

Williamsport 27,132 

Allentown ...... 25,228 

Johnstown 21,805 

York 20,793 

McKeesport 20,741 

Chester 20,226 

Norristown ...... 19,791 

Shenandoah 15,944 

Lebanon 14,644 

Easton 14,481 

Shamokin 14,403 

Pottsville 14,117 

Pottstown 13,285 

Hazleton 11,872 

New Castle 11,600 

Mahanoy City .... 11,286 

Oil City 10,932 

Carbondale 10,833 

Columbia ...... 10,599 

Bradford 10,514 

South Bethlehem . . . 10,302 

Pittston 10,302 

Nanticoke 10,044 

Beaver Falls 9,735 



Meadville 9,520 

Plymouth 9,344 

Steelton . 9,250 

Butler 8,734 

Braddock 8,561 

Phoenixville 8,514 

Dunmore 8,315 

Mount Carmel 8,254 

Titusville 8,073 

West Chester 8,028 

Danville 7,998 

Homestead 7,911 

Chambersburg 7,863 

Carlisle 7,620 

Sharon 7,459 

Lock Haven 7,358 

Ashland 7,346 

South Chester 7,076 

Washington 7,063 

Bethlehem 6,762 

Bristol 6,553 

Uniontown 6,359 

Franklin 6,221 

Du Bois 6,149 

Tamaqua 6,054 

Sunbury 5,930 

Huntingdon 5,729 

Corry 5,677 

Connellsville 5,629 

New Brighton 5,616 

South Easton 5,616 

Conshohocken 5,470 

Milton 5,317 

Middletown 5,080 



1 Any borough having a population of 10,000, may be chartered as a city 
whenever a majority of the electors, at any general election, shall so decide. 
(See Art. XV. Sect. 1.) 




[The references are to paragraphs, except when the page is indicated.] 



Adjutant-general, 49 b . 
Administrative officers, 49 b . 
Aldermen, p. 37. 
Assembly, 9, 10, 36. 
Assessor of taxes, 75. 
Attorney-general, 44. 
Auditor, borough, 79. 
Auditor, city, 96. 
Auditor-general, 45. 
Auditors, county, 64. 
Auditors, township, 77. 

Bank examiners, 49 a . 
Board of health, 82 a , p. 63. 
Board of pardons, 41. 
Borough, 79-82 b inclusive. 
Borough board of health, 82 a 
Borough clerk, 81. 
Borough council, 81. 
Borough officers, 79. 
Borough solicitor, 82 b . 
Borough treasurer, 82. 
Burgess, 80. 

Cities of second class, 99. 

Cities of third class, 99. 

Citizen, 33. 

City, 83-99 inclusive. 

City board of education, 98. 

City controller, 96. 

City councils, 88. 

City courts, 97. 

City receiver of taxes, 92. 



City solicitor, 96. 
City treasurer, 96. 
Civil cases, 52, p. 44. 
Classification of cities, 85. 
Clerk of borough, 81. 
Clerk of township, p. 51. 
Clerks of courts, 55, 57. 
Collateral inheritance tax, p. 37. 
Commissioner of banking, 49 a . 
Congressman-at-large, p. 69. 
Constable, 72. 
Constitution of Pennsylvania, pp. 

76-123 inclusive. 
Conventions, 103. 
Coroner, 66. 
Corporations, 43, p. 29. 
Council, 81, 87, 88. 
County, 55-69 inclusive. 
County auditors, 64. 
County commissioners, 61. 
County controller, 64 a . 
County courts, 56. 
County solicitor, 60. 
County superintendent of schools, 

55, 69. 
County surveyor, 6o. 
County treasurer, 63. 
Courts, 50, 51, 52, 56, 71, 97. 
Criminal cases, 52, p. 43. 

Delegate election, 102. 
Department of charities, 94. 
Department of public safety, 90. 
129 



130 



INDEX. 



Department of public works, 91. 
Directors of the poor, 67, p. 47. 
District attorney, 58. 

Education, board of, 93. 
Election, 107-110 inclusive. 
Election officers, 107. 
Election returns, 43, 110. 
Electors, 33. 
Escheats, p. 38. 
Executive department, 40. 

Farmers' institutes, 49. 

First Pennsylvania Assembly, 10. 

Franklin, Benjamin, 18 et seq. 

General Assembly, 36. 
Governor, 41. 
Grand jury, 59. 

Habeas corpus, 51, 51 a , 71. 
House of Kepresentatives, 38. 
How the laws are made, 39. 

Impeachments, 37, 38. 
Income of State, 53. 

Judgments, 57. 
Judicial department, 50. 
Judicial districts, 52, 56, p. 124. 
Jury commissioners, 59. 
Justice of the peace, p. 37, 71, 80. 

Laws, how made, 39. 
Legislative department, 35. 
Legislature, 36. 
Lieutenant-governor, 42. 
Lower courts, 52. 

Magistrates, pp. 37, 97. 
Majority vote, p. 72. 
Mayor, 80, 89. 



Mechanics' liens, 57. 
Mercantile appraiser, 68. 
Militia, p. 32. 

National Guard, p. 32. 
Nomination papers, 105. 
Nominations, 104. 
Norman conquest, 50. 
Notary public, p. 28. 

Officer-elect, 111. 
Overseers of the poor, p. 51. 

Pardons, board of, 41. 

Party committees, 101. 

Penn, William, 1 et seq. 

Plurality vote, p. 72. 

Political parties, 100. 

Posse comitatusy 62, p. 53. 

Primary election, 102. 

Prison inspectors, p. 39. 

Private secretary, p. 28. 

Prothonotary, 57, p. 41. 

Public schools of Philadelphia, 98. 

Qualifications of members of 
the General Assembly, p. 
25. 

Receiver of taxes, 92. 
Recorder of deeds, 57. 
Register of wills, 57. 
Representative districts, 38. 

School directors, 69, 73, 78, 79. 
School district, 78. 
Seal of the State, 43, p. 23. 
Secretary of agriculture, 49. 
Secretary of Commonwealth, 43. 
Secretary of internal affairs, 47. 
Senate, 37. 
I Sheriff, 62. 



INDEX. 



131 



Sinking fund commission, 95. 

Special legislation, p. 3, p. 39. 

State banking department, 49 a . 

State committee, p. 68. 

State government, 34. 

State, income of, 53. 

State normal schools, 30, 48. 

State officers, 41-49 b inclusive. 

State superintendent of public in- 
struction, 48. 

State tax, 54. 

State treasurer, 46. 

Superintendent of schools, 69, 79, 
98. 

Superior court, 51 a . 

Supervisors, 74. 

Supreme court, 51. 



Tax-collector, 76. 
Teachers, 48, 69. 
Teachers' institutes, 69. 
Township, 70-78 inclusive. 
Township auditors, 77. 
Township clerk, p. 51. 
Township officers, 70. 
Township treasurer, p. 51. 
Treasurer of borough, 82. 
Treasurer of city, 96. 
Treasurer of county, 63. 
Treasurer of State, 46. 

University of Pennsylvania, 
30. 

Voting divisions, 86. 
Wards, 79, 86. 



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